Seems to me it's time to rethink the trans-generational importance of infrastructure.

[HereSince1628]

It'll take multiple generations to pay for the current deferred maintenance of critical public projects. If we just fix what's out there in another 50 years there will be a need for yet more maintenance or replacement costs of systems that quite honestly were often built by the Greatest Generation to do things for the booming economy of the 1950's (admittedly the failing of later booms' infrastructure -- Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Little Rock -- lie just a bit further over the horizon).

Clearly some infrastructure needs maintenance, even to the point of reconstruction, but shouldn't we be arguing for things that are most energy and cost efficient? Things that are most likely to solve problems across the long half-lives of these projects?

In some circumstances might not building 8 miles of mass-transit make more sense than building 3/4 of a mile of elevated eight lane highway plus its on-ramps?

Prior to making knee-jerk reactions aimed at solving all the contemporary infrastructure dilemmas maybe we should look down the road and recommend decisions that our grandchildren might appreciate as well-conceived as they end up paying for the infrastructure that we impose on them.

We've got a lot of infrastructure choices to make that revolve around competition for dollars between sewage treatment vs. adequate potable water vs. private transportation vs. public transportation, etc.

And as we come to grips with these things we need to face reality: we in the US aren't booming so much anymore. We don't have revenue to squander on expensive one-generation-duration fixes. It's time to think about investing in public projects of lasting value into the future.

That means making current decisions that may not be popular as contemporary solutions. That means making some mistakes and sometimes getting it wrong about an incompletely knowable future. It's risky. For our descendants our decisions may be more obsolete and less quaint than the animated clocks in the town square of a Bavarian village.

Before we spend a half trillion dollars in panic, we need to consider what will do the most good for the most people 50 years from now. Lets do something the Greatest Generation with it's dream of Suburbatopia wasn't good at. Let's look forward beyond our natural lifespans to the end of our childrens' lifespans, and ask about how our decisions will aid our grandchildren and great grandchildren.