This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1252172
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
Thanks to Jeremy Mohler for pointing out the decades-later results of Reagan’s budget cutting, leaving the inner cities high and dry, etc. Public projects should be funded with public dollars ONLY. It scares me that so many municipalities are being forced to address these monumental projects such as part of an inter-state highway that runs through their borders or water projects and such with private money, knowing full well they will be left to make up whatever differences should/when said investors go bankrupt or just don’t give a fuck.
One should always make sure one knows where one’s wallet is when the term “public-private partnership” are uttered. These usually turn out to boondoggles and functional takings of public property by private interests.
It is just another method of funneling more money to the top. In the next economic downturn, communities and states are going to cut back funding for schools, employee pensions and finally default on their bond payments, just like in the Bush great recession. The high rate of these bonds will attract a lot of greedy investors but I doubt they are insured and that won’t matter if enough of them go down.
I agree about the need for shoring up infrastructure. My concern, though, is that any resources that go towards doing so must take into account looming climate breakdown. Money for more roads, allowing more cars and trucks to trundle through on, is a bad idea. Planning must take into account the urgent need to cut carbon emissions, and that applies to any and all policy decisions.
We have reached the point where no matter how much infrastructure funding the federal government could provide, the real limit will be that we simply do not have the labor or physical resources needed to fix a half-century of neglect and, importantly, to implement programs to cut carbon emissions and otherwise mitigate climate change.
And, in response to Bruria, we don’t need new roads … we need roads and bridges that don’t collapse. But that also requires more resources than we have now.
Thanks, TPM. We finally get moving on impeachment, so you decide to launch Infrastructure week to distract us.
If nothing changes in Washington, here’s the future of America: congested, crumbling and decaying infrastructure in rural and poor urban areas
Yes and No. I live in a rural area of East TN. We had some serious rain a few years ago that washed out the only north/south highway in a neighboring county. This is a very poor county but it did have some growing industry so there was hope. The county repaired one lane then said the balance would need to await the next year’s highway allotment as they were out of funds. They would not raise money with taxes, bonds, nothing the mantra was must keep taxes low. An independent study stated taxes would need to go up by $1 per $1000 evaluation, that was not acceptable. So road remained as one narrow lane. Soon the major employer cut back, next they closed. Why simple, they no longer could get raw material in nor finished product out. County fathers yelled, etc but my take was they should look in a mirror because for the sake of a few dollars they decided jobs had no future. Today the county is much much poorer and I’d venture a good 10/15% or more of the population has left.
Socialism is just when Wall Street hasn’t got its thumb in the pie.
Our GDP and our GDP per capita are the highest in history and we are being told that we can’t afford things we could afford in the 1950s.
The problem is that they have stupid people making the decisions and stupid people can’t connect the dots. They just repeat the Republican mantra of “no more taxes”. I wonder what kind of police and fire protection they have in that county. Of course, it is the Democrats’ fault the company left because burble, babble, garble.
Public-private partnerships work in really far out areas, like say a manned mission to the nearest earth-like planet outside our solar system. In the normal production of public goods and services, not so much. For that you need taxation. In the case of roads, tax gasoline. In the EU gas is about $6.40 a gallon, so if it is say $4.00 a gallon at the moment in California, there’s plenty of room for a higher gas tax (which would also help the move to electrics as Norway demonstrates) and more action on carbon neutrality.
Don’t know of police but the fire is by subscription. That means unless you pay they will just sit in their trucks and watch burn. OTOH from observation it will not make much difference. I used to do a lot of back county road nighttime driving. More than once I came upon a place fully engulfed, when I’d call 911 was told they had numerous reports. That would lead you to believe if you rolled down your window you’d hear sirens, nope. Next day as I drove past could see just a very small pile of rubble sitting on slab that was an indication of how hot the fire got.
Another time came over a ridge and saw road blocked by fallen trees, turned around. When I can back over the ridge saw that power lines had burst into flame. In the seconds it took for me to approach I saw trees catch. Called 911, was told that they could do nothing as it was not a house fire. So by subscription rules it was a-ok for a forest fire to start, not their responsibility.
Absolutely true true true about this finance boondoggle thingie. But know also: There are only 3 ways to get in or through San Francisco, Nirth South East. Two of them are by bridge. The section of road into the Presedio is practically a 3rd section of the GG Bridge called ‘Doyle Drive’. It is an elevated bridge that for seismic reasons had to be rebuilt. The Federal government is broken but something had to be done to fix Doyle Drive.
Boondoggle, yes. Big improvement and more beautiful than ever, yes
I guess it’s infrastructure week at TPM…
Now consider all of this, but then move to a planetary scale.
We have plenty of resources. We’re just deploying them stupidly. Developers just topped out a building in Manhattan where apartment prices are up to $100M a floor. Congress just cut rich people’s taxes by close on $100B a year. The number of people only tenuously connected to the job market is in the millions. Meanwhile we spend uncounted billions on stuff we don’t need. Massive redirection is hard, but it’s been done before.
Yeah, if anything the infrastructure issues may be harder in rural areas because there are fewer people and less money flowing to support the needed work. I live in Vermont, where the transportation budget is enormous per capita because spread-out population and topography. And you can’t not fix things – years back, when Irene came through, there were a bunch of small towns and villages where for a few months the only way in or out was by helicopter or off-road (seriously off-road) vehicle. Lots of towns where the annual argument is over the short and longterm costs of paved vs dirt…
Surprise, surprise, surprise, private investors demand top dollar returns on their investment.
Who would have thought?
When the top marginal federal income tax rate never dipped below 91%.
Wow, public-private partnerships in road building are just like public-private partnerships in education and healthcare. Who would have guessed?