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EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

detroitnews.com

191–198 of 198 posts

Re: EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

#191
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price/cost overruns of building the 2nd ave subway (and the large stations, which is were most of the costs went) is unrelated to the price of building roads and sewer in suburban America. Also, doing stuff in America costs more than in China or India. News at 10.

>Also, doing stuff in America costs more than in China or India. News at 10. Which is his whole point. Also, the suburb cashflow you are super concerned about would be fixed with cheaper building/maintenance costs.

Then the point is stupid.

Complaining (as I think?) that it's relatively more expensive is reasonable, though I doubt Americans would tolerate the widespread death rates involved in large infra projects in some countries.

As I pointed out, nothing he mentioned is relevant to infra costs of your suburbs that aren't building giant gorgeous mezzanines or stupid pretty bridges like sf.

Re: EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

#192
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it an assumption? The administration just gave $100M to help repair the pipes in Flint. It's in the title of the article. Also in the article is this quote from the administrator of the EPA: > especially focus on helping Michigan improve Flint’s water infrastructure as part of its larger goal of improving America’s water infrastructure.

The Obama administration + Congress did that. Trump had nothing to do with it. From the 3rd paragraph of the article: > The funding was approved by Congress in December and signed into law by President Barack Obama, but the EPA had to review and approve a formal request from state officials detailing how the city intends to use the grant money.

> The Obama administration + Congress did that.

Irrelevant. The quote I provided is from the current administrator of the EPA who was appointed by Trump.

Re: EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

#193
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about first admitting that you were wrong in crediting Trump for this?

I've now seen this devolution in argument a number of times. Here, Facebook, and Reddit Trump Supporter: Look what Trump Did! Answer: Obama Pressured Congress, the bill was passed in December -Obama waited till he was on his way out so what's the point. He was ineffective. Answer: Actually the legislation was drafted much earlier, but republicans didn't want to pass it. Obama used his office to raise the profile of t…

I think you replied to the wrong guy, you should reply to user https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=svsjc

Re: EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

#194
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that private corporation were a mining company in Montana they would choose to take the profits, go bankrupt, and again have the people pay to clean up the mess.

And thats a wise business decision. But if you want to erase your student loan debt with bankruptcy you're a lazy mooch who should just get a part time job to pay for college like I did back in the '60s. /s

Please don't disrespect real wisdom by using "wise" in that way.

Wisdom is multi-dimensional and holistic. Screwing over people and the environment is a loser move.

Re: EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

#195
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If infrastructure cost the same as it costs in Spain, Korea, China or India, thos suburbs would be paying their costs. Delhi built a metro system for the cost of 2 miles of 2nd Ave Subway track in NYC. We spend too much. That's the problem.

The price/cost overruns of building the 2nd ave subway (and the large stations, which is were most of the costs went) is unrelated to the price of building roads and sewer in suburban America. Also, doing stuff in America costs more than in China or India. News at 10.

Yes, doing stuff in America costs more than in every other country in the world, including wealthy ones like Spain and Korea.

That's the whole point. If you want better infrastructure, fix that.

Re: EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Obama administration + Congress did that. Trump had nothing to do with it. From the 3rd paragraph of the article: > The funding was approved by Congress in December and signed into law by President Barack Obama, but the EPA had to review and approve a formal request from state officials detailing how the city intends to use the grant money.

> The Obama administration + Congress did that. Irrelevant. The quote I provided is from the current administrator of the EPA who was appointed by Trump.

Actions speak louder than words. I wouldn't hold my breath for the current EPA to do anything but roll back regulations.

Re: EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

#197
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said anything about weapons? The point being argued is that rather than spend $100M to fix a broken city, spend it to relocate the former residents elsewhere.

The President of the United States just proposed to raise the defense budget by $54 billion. That's 540x this fix in a single year.

While I don't agree on our defense spending budget and I'd love for us to cut back, there are a few things worth pointing out.

1) money spent on defense is orthogonal to the argument being made. Your point is a good one, but it still doesn't refute the point that it's good money following bad money.

2) While I don't think it's the best industry that we could be investing in, many people see defense spending as investing in the American people. One of the chief exports of the US is war, defense and weaponry. Lots of countries our customers of the US and there are lots of towns and cities that would be economically hurt (to the point of dying like Flynt) depending on how our defense spending was cut.

Re: EPA gives Flint $100M to help repair pipes

#198
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of Europe to at least some extent, with variations on different subjects. For example, in some countries people are dissatisfied with immigration policy, but they're probably happy with the roads and water supply.

Not the UK: In which probably 50% of the population feel the government doesn't represent them. Not France I'd guess? Which seems to have issues and strong probability of a Frexit? Not Italy, whose politics as seemed somwwhat messy for some time? Those are the countries in Europe that are "doing well" in terms of GDP at least. Aside from Germany that is. So is Germany the role model? I'm really trying to ask an hones…

>Not the UK: In which probably 50% of the population feel the government doesn't represent them.

When you have a situation like that, it seems like it's time to break up the country into smaller units so that you don't have a half-and-half divide, because then you'll never get to a stable state where a large enough majority of the population accepts the government (because they're constantly fighting the other half in a tug-of-war and the majority keeps flipping back and forth).

According to the Brexit results, Scotland strongly favored "remain", and so did Northern Ireland. London did too. So obviously, Scotland should simply secede from the UK, and it can rejoin the EU as a separate nation. It's certainly large enough to be an independent nation on its own. Northern Ireland can too, or better yet it can rejoin regular Ireland which is already an EU member.

I do wonder, however, what would happen if they did another Brexit vote just to see if many people have changed their minds.

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