The cost to fix America's crumbling infrastructure? Nearly $2.6 trillion, engineers say

[Hamartia Antidote]

You can pat yourself on the back that the barbaric slavers and mass murderers who spawned you stole enough so you can live a good life. Congratulations to you.

Unfortunately for you, your own spawn will be unable to continue the same parasitic cycle. No longer will they be able to use the accumulated wealth of centuries of plunder and exploitation to advantage themselves: they will be up against legions countless of people who are far better equipped than they are to compete in the modern world. The world that their ancestors ironically unleashed.

Oh, how they are going to curse you for being the last of your kind to enjoy what they cannot.

LOL! I think you guys are the ones plundering Africa not us. Congrats to you on that I guess.

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

LOL! I think you guys are the ones plundering Africa not us. Congrats to you on that I guess.

I could go into how the Western narrative on Chinese engagement with Africa is nothing but slanderous lies and give a mountain of evidence for it, but what would be the point? All of that would be wasted on you.

Instead I'll point out one simple fact. You know one thing China definitely isn't plundering from Africa? People. Unlike some countries built by African slaves.

This is how America picked cotton:

Protip: Just because you are despicable monsters doesn't mean others share your reprehensible traits. Your lies are easily and formulaically exposed: every crime you accuse others of committing is one you're demonstrably guilty of. It's uncanny.

 

[LeGenD]

China is justifiably proud of its infra achievements but america really does not have infra problem. The only things i can think off is high cost of broadband and cellular but again this is a problem of policy. When it comes to roads, transport, electricity, gas, air conditioning - its all excellent and affordable - cars (large and uxurious) are very cheap especially in used markets. There are 5000 airports in america as opposed to few hundreds in china. China still struggle to supply piped heating to their houses even in beijing suburbs. And also china simply has a lot many more people than usa.

You sure about that?

There was a time when American infrastructure made that of others look like village(s) in comparison. Now if somebody move from let's day Dubai to an American city, he might feel that he moved from a city to a village instead.

This is simply a local taxation issue...and the very key to understanding most of the problems. You build infrastructure to support a given population base expecting to generate income from the people and businesses using that infrastructure to pay for the upkeep.

What happens when the people and businesses leave?

The people remaining are usually low income and they can't generate the income needed to support that elaborate infrastructure.

What happens to the 137 year old Boston subway system when their prime user base buys cars, moves to the suburbs, and work in suburban office parks? It ends up shuffling around lower income people and fare increases would only dissuade their user base.

So American cities should be left to rot because some people moved to suburbs?

If that Boston subway system wasn't overhauled in a while, no wonder people decided to buy cars and/or move elsewhere? You developed cities at some point and now you are OK with leaving them to rot because you do not live in one? Strange mindset.

 

[Clutch]

nope a comatose Biden is better than any leader Pakistan has had..

BS... Imran Khan is better than any leader America has ever had or ever will!

Sleepy senile Joe Biden

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

There was a time when American infrastructure made that of others look like village(s) in comparison. Now if somebody move from let's day Dubai to an American city, he might feel that he moved from a city to a village instead.

Not surprised. Most Americans can easily explain about why Dubai (or many other places) would look better than our cities.

So American cities should be left to rot because some people moved to suburbs?

If that Boston subway system wasn't overhauled in a while, no wonder people decided to buy cars and/or move elsewhere? You developed cities at some point and now you are OK with leaving them to rot because you do not live in one? Strange mindset.

No, the subway was perfectly fine. We had tons of trolleys too. Please watch a few seconds of this 1903 Boston video and everything will fall into place:

Look closely at all the people lining the streets in 1903. This was at a height of city living in the Boston area where the infrastructure was built to support ALL these working people flocking to Boston (subway stations opened in 1897-1901).

But it isn't like that anymore. Even though the Massachusetts population has more than doubled since 1903; the Boston streets are not overflowing with as many workers as you see in this video (most these days are tourists).

A large number of people now live and work in the suburbs and never set foot in the city. So the trolley routes disappeared because of low ridership making them unprofitable. The bus routes are struggling because of low ridership making them unprofitable. The subway is struggling because it is unprofitable. All this infrastructure built to sustain the throngs of people in 1903 is not applicable anymore. The city is struggling with a lower tax base (as the successful abandoned Boston...lower income people moved in to take their place...with their social welfare requirements) and Boston can't maintain their infrastructure anymore.

However having the Federal Government throwing money at it to shine it all up isn't going to solve the core problem. But what is the answer? Do we simply raze almost everything? Tear down billions of dollars worth of 120+ year old buildings?


Right now in the Boston area most of the new infrastructure in the last 70 years has been in the suburbs..which when seen is almost incomprehensible as just 100 years ago this is what most of the area outside of Boston looked like:

it was mostly clearcutted farmland from horizon to horizon mile after mile after mile. (like much of the UK countryside). Things look COMPLETELY different now as trees were replanted and all that flat empty farmland was turned into NEW suburban neighborhoods. THIS is the typical "new" infrastructure the US has invested $Billions in (but mostly unseen by non-Americans):

Almost no money has been invested in Boston in probably 70 years (the last being the Big Dig).\

Meanwhile:

Brand new buildings, fountains, flowers, tons of free parking, trees, grass, etc. People now live in big modern single family houses and drive to places like above instead of the old 1903 way of living in some tiny 4th floor apartment in Boston and jumping on a trolley to get to work.

Why would anybody in their right mind want to deal with the city stuff anymore????
So Boston (like many other US cities) is in serious decline.

When the New England Patriots built a new Stadium did they put it in downtown Boston right near easy public transportation to guarantee an adequate attendance? Nope, they put it in the suburbs and charge an average of $130 ticket. Sounds like suicide? Nope, they've sold out every game for like the past 20 years.

The Chinese here constantly focus on cities because skyscrapers, tall apartment buildings, cars, and city life is NEW to them and they think living there is cutting edge life compared to their old rural villages. So when they see neglected US cities they say the US must be in decline and not moving forwards. What they don't realize is that we already went through that exact same urban love phase 100 years ago...and after a few decades of flashing neon building lights, all night craziness, and crowding into apartment elevators we mostly decided it simply wasn't for us. We were originally quiet farmers who truly valued self-sufficiency and our "a man's home is his castle" mantra. That wasn't cutting it in urban life as we'd have to rely on building management to fix stuff and having idiot building residents making life miserable. So we moved to single family home living where we take care of everything and your neighbors are more than an arms length away.

China: rural farm village->urban
US: rural farm town -> urban -> suburban

 

[letsrock]

You sure about that?

There was a time when American infrastructure made that of others look like village(s) in comparison. Now if somebody move from let's day Dubai to an American city, he might feel that he moved from a city to a village instead.

Infrastructure is not an end product of a civilization but an enabler. If i have electricity and you dont and after 20 years you upgrade to electrification then i am not going to consume 10 times more current just to maintian the infra distance between you and me. I would use my first mover advantage to make - say software with that electricity and sell it to you later. This is what america is doing.

Also leaving apart physical infra america is abundant in another infrta - human infra. In fact america tries to prevent the rush of human talent waiting to flood its shores through immigration policy. In which country in the world do you have a line of people willing to pick crops for $2 an hour to a high end artificial intelligence developer at $200 an hour?

Finally there is another infra people dont bother noticing - the software infra. Most of the content on internet is produced in america and there is tons of business software that is embedded in to american industry and gocvt every minute.

 

[mmr]

finally Biden doing what need to be done. always a good investment when its in productive sectors.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Much more competent than the demonic senile Biden...

That is a fake opposition party’s poorly EDITED video of Biden’s first press conference. Those of us who voted for him voted for his experience and his policies. We know he is 78 years old who is not a good public speaker and often mangles his words, who cares.

So far, he has done an excellent job. Throughout the election campaign he had said if we take care of the Covid-19 virus the economy will take care of itself and if he is elected that is going to be his top priority.

He promised 100 million vaccine shots in the first 100 days. He achieved it in 53 days, more than 47 days before his target date of his 100th day in office. And the US government has administered more Covid-19 vaccine doses than any country in the world.

Thanks to his successful handling of the virus, the stock markets have rallied to record highs and last week’s blowout jobs report (916,000 jobs added in March) and a surge in the services industries activity showed the economic rebound gained momentum.


Here is Joe Biden’s unedited press conference. He did a fine job.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Now if somebody move from let's day Dubai to an American city, he might feel that he moved from a city to a village instead.

So American cities should be left to rot because some people moved to suburbs?

Moderna Covid19 vaccine manufacturing facility...in the Boston suburbs,

Boston Dynamics HQ...in the Boston suburbs