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The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

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Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#211

Post by [deleted] »

joshuaheard wrote: post #205
imgabe wrote: post #80

I don't know the answers, but as someone who works in the industry (on the design side). I think a big unmentioned factor is probably liability and the prospect of litigation. If you look at old blueprints for projects in the past, they are a LOT less detailed. They had to be, because it was physically more difficult to produce them since they had to be drawn by hand. A lot was left to the contractor to figure out in…

There is two problems with this theory. The first is that governments have immunity from litigation. They can only be sued where they consent to the lawsuit. The second is that in most states, employee-related injury claims must proceed through a worker's compensation system outside the normal litigation channel where the costs are much less. I always say there are not too many lawsuits, but too many laws. Legislatur…

[deleted]

Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#212

Post by mark-r »

dmix wrote: post #131
Dirlewanger wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>campaign finance reform, perhaps? Abso-fucking-lutely. I think in order to run at any levels of office, you should be using public money. For simplification, let's say if one wants to run for president, they can only use whatever is in the FEC public coffers. In return, we levy a federal FEC tax to boost it way higher than its current rates. We replicate a similar tax at state and local levels. Completely remove pri…

If businesses have a hundred different ways to gain special market advantages by simply having political influence then 100% their money should not be able to influence politics. This should be more obvious in US (and Canadian) politics than it is. But politicians are rarely willing to admit their malleability when it comes to both businesses and non-profit organizations (or special interest groups) influencing them.…

I'm not doubting that money buys influence, but it's not even necessary. There are enough potential politicians with enough different viewpoints that all you need to do is find one already pushing your agenda, and back them.

Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#213

Post by Xeoncross »

vinay427 wrote: post #206
lghh wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And America's love affair with the automobile is a well-known abusive relationship that America will never have the courage to leave. It's pretty much impossible to leave this relationship unless you live in one of the larger US cities. If you live in a suburb, rural area, or city that's not in the top 10-15 in terms of size there's literally no other option that exists or that could easily exist.

This is an extremely simplistic view of the situation. In reality, many of the largest cities are almost entirely unusable without a car while many small cities (in the extreme case, most college towns) have excellent walkability and public transit because of their dense layout. I have personally experienced these. This is not a problem of urbanization to large cities, but of overall urban design.

You assume those that live in small cities work there as well. A large number of people living rural areas or small cities drive to big cities to work. There are very few "small" cities on the coasts (<10,000 people) so perhaps that is what you are referring to by small cities for which this works.

Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#214

Post by [deleted] »

kmicklas wrote: post #154
gwern wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't 6 point differences between France, China, Japan, and the USA. It's more like 2 points. And if 2, or 6 points could double construction costs, then in the poorest countries like Africa everything would have to cost something like 100x more, which is definitely not the case.

Ooooo, daily dose of HN racism.

[deleted]

Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#216

Post by TulliusCicero »

ghaff wrote: post #70
noonespecial wrote: post #51

I thought about this when I visited the Hoover Dam. The audacity of the thing and sheer impossibility of doing anything remotely like it in today's America makes it seem like a relic from an ancient civilization. It felt like visiting the pyramids in Egypt.

Dams specifically are... complicated. There are a lot of reasons why dams are more likely to be torn down these days than built. Some are necessary for flood control but dams often have very significant negative environmental effects. It's also hard to imagine building the interstate highway system today but, in general, a greater concern about the environmental impact of infrastructure projects isn't really a bad th…

> It's also hard to imagine building the interstate highway system today but, in general, a greater concern about the environmental impact of infrastructure projects isn't really a bad thing.

Yes, but Japan and Western Europe surely care as much about the environment as the US does, don't they?

Plus a lot of the times you have a incredibly amount of money spent on environmental review for things like, a housing complex in the middle of SF being torn down to make way for a taller housing complex. That's not going to impact "the environment" as the term is usually used. It's not dropping new development in a forest or building a dam.

Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#217

Post by sanderjd »

Mz wrote: post #184
lghh wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With the magic of the internet, I work online Which is great for us developers, but not so much for most service industry workers.

I'm not a developer. You can have an HN account without being a developer.

But you're also not working at a Starbucks or a Chipotle. This is what your parent was talking about: a lot of the jobs in our economy require physically being where your customers are.

Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#218

Post by blakes »

Mz wrote: post #184
lghh wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With the magic of the internet, I work online Which is great for us developers, but not so much for most service industry workers.

I'm not a developer. You can have an HN account without being a developer.

What do you do for work online, out of curiosity?

I know there are a lot of options for basic online work that isn't developer based, but I'm not sure what is available that truly pays a decent living wage.

Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#219

Post by dmix »

mark-r wrote: post #212
dmix wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If businesses have a hundred different ways to gain special market advantages by simply having political influence then 100% their money should not be able to influence politics. This should be more obvious in US (and Canadian) politics than it is. But politicians are rarely willing to admit their malleability when it comes to both businesses and non-profit organizations (or special interest groups) influencing them.…

I'm not doubting that money buys influence, but it's not even necessary. There are enough potential politicians with enough different viewpoints that all you need to do is find one already pushing your agenda, and back them.

That still would limit the number of politicians who appreciate your niche political issue. Especially considering the cliche politician is a lawyer from a well known private school who gives preference to friends or friends of friends.

Eliminating money from that scenario reduces the tiny number of companies who currently influence politics and push it closer to 'interesting' or 'popular' issues rather than ones backed by incumbent connections and wealth.

Re: The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure

#220

Post by davidw »

abalashov wrote: post #109
davidw wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mostly privatized Where's that?

Everywhere outside the "developed world". By the numbers, the global norm is free-market healthcare, where the patient directly pays the doctor. And yet, even that delivers a cost structure that is infinitely preferable to our circus over here. I personally favour socialised medicine. The point is that whichever extreme you go to, it's going to be better than the morbidly obese, hyperinflated, worst-of-all-worlds cat…

Yes, I realize that in the 'developing' world that's the norm, but the parent comment mentioned 'first world' countries.
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