The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
bloomberg.com
The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
1–10 of 564 posts
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#2It costs extra because CORRUPTION. They're skimming off the top at every level, and that's why they can't let anyone investigate.
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#3It costs extra because CORRUPTION. They're skimming off the top at every level, and that's why they can't let anyone investigate.
Why is this corruption particularly endemic in the US and not in other major western countries?
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#4We haven't "forgotten" how to do anything. We just let ourselves (collectively) become OK with projects that extraordinarily long, slow, and expensive, and the contractors aren't going to be the ones to force positive change in the system.
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#5From my perspective infrastructure is politically driven in the US. Projects are debated for decades, over this time changes are made to placate some groups and buy the support from other groups, and create jobs for some politician, until it baloons into something that is many billions of dollars. Then it is built as a one off mega project. At this point it should be killed but this is seen as the only way to get stuff done.
Things like CAHSR instead of agreeing on a goal and deciding we should have a CA-wide rail system, so then establish a division of Caltrans which we fund to incrementally build/acquire/run a network through ROW acquisition, running DMUs on the routes in the mean time, making it compatible with existing systems, etc. instead becomes one giant $60b acquisition that is master planned for a multi decade time frame to be built almost entirely as a stand alone system the benefits of which can't really be enjoyed until decades in the future.
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#6It costs extra because CORRUPTION. They're skimming off the top at every level, and that's why they can't let anyone investigate.
Why is this corruption particularly endemic in the US and not in other major western countries?
From my experience this kind of crony corruption is becoming more endemic in places like New Zealand and Australia. I can't speak for Europe.
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#7Bureaucrats, allied with progressives and public sector unions, work vigorously to make government as expensive and inefficient as possible. In the United States, they are succeeding very well.
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#8It costs extra because CORRUPTION. They're skimming off the top at every level, and that's why they can't let anyone investigate.
Yep, but it's spreading. Just look at the disaster of the Berlin Airport.
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#9Bureaucrats, allied with progressives and public sector unions, work vigorously to make government as expensive and inefficient as possible. In the United States, they are succeeding very well.
If bureaucracy is the problem, then why only here? European governments are notorious for their large number of civil servants.
Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
#10Bureaucrats, allied with progressives and public sector unions, work vigorously to make government as expensive and inefficient as possible. In the United States, they are succeeding very well.
"Bureaucrats, allied with conservatives and private business interests, work vigorously to make government as expensive and inefficient as possible. In the United States, they are succeeding very well."
In either instance, it's an absurd and simplistic statement to make.