Infrastructure: Boring Word, Hot Topic

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Jared Bernstein
Infrastructure: Boring Word, Hot Topic
Posted June 22, 2008 | 07:32 PM (EST)





Here's a problem: we have been over-consuming and under-investing. And here's part of the solution: a major, smart, strategic program to revitalize the nation's infrastructure.

I know, "infrastructure" sounds really unexciting, not nearly as cool as a Mars probe or as obviously essential as health care reform. But investing in roads, bridges, water systems, schools and other public goods is a critical need, one that won't be met by the private sector. What's more, it's got some real political currency right now.

Conservatives love to turn everything over the market, but even these types recognize that markets under-invest in public goods and for a very simple reason: private firms can't claim enough of a return on such investments, so they fail to invest enough in them.

Take schools, for example. Private schools exist, of course, but they are a niche market, either providing a "luxury good" for those who can afford it or a specialized good for those who want their kids' education to occur in a more religious context. Few disagree that in the absence of a public system, we'd under-invest in educating our citizenry.

So one reason to make public investments is that if we fail to do so, we'll all be worse off. If our highway system is falling apart -- the U.S. Department of Transportation has identified more than 6,000 high-priority, structurally deficient bridges that need to be replaced -- if our schools are physically inadequate to the task at hand -- in New York City alone, officials have identified $1.7 billion of deferred maintenance projects on 800 city school buildings -- we will fail to realize our economic potential, no matter what happens in corporate America.

That case has been well made by progressives for awhile, most recently at EPI, where we've articulated a robust infrastructure agenda. But there is another reason why this idea may have particular urgency now: to replace the demand lost to the coming downturn in consumer spending. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jared-bernstein/infrastructure-boring-wor_b_108502.html

[AndyTiedye]

1. Wasn't That How the WPA Worked?

Putting people to work building and repairing infrastructure.