<div dir="ltr">One thing that I haven't seen (yet) is the cost of *not* doing these projects. Occasionally the idea of "this will pay for itself in X years" pops up, or sometimes the idea of infrastructure improvements with respect to climate change lessening future emergency costs comes into play. But it is vanishingly rare to see an honest comparison of "Project X will cost $Y dollars over 10/20/50 years, vs the status quo, which will cost $Z dollars over the same period". I would like to see more of that. Keeping things as they are is not free. I also have the feeling that a lot of this infrastructure is playing catch-up on either maintenance or improvements that should have been done years ago (ex. widespread broadband internet, lead water pipes, bridges).<div><br></div><div>I am less concerned about long term inflation - not that it isn't serious, but it is a lesser / more manageable problem than some of the issues that the bill attempts to address (ex. resilience to climate change).</div><div><br></div><div>Also curious what others think.</div><div>-Casey</div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Apr 8, 2021 at 2:05 PM David Albrecht <<a href="mailto:albrecht.dr@gmail.com" target="_blank">albrecht.dr@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>I have to admit feeling rather divided about this whole thing. I wonder what others think.</div><div><br></div><div>On
one hand, the $2 trillion headline number getting thrown around is
astoundingly large. That is 1000 separate $2 billion projects. If you
set even a moderate bar of accepting 25% of proposed projects, that
means reviewing 4000 separate $2 billion projects in the next couple
years. A $2 billion infrastructure project is a <i>big</i> project. I
have yet to see any entity anywhere able to deploy that kind of money so
quickly without huge amounts of waste. And keep in mind, there is no
credible plan on the table to fix Social Security or Medicare, even as
the CBO's <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56977" target="_blank">baseline projection</a> has US debt reaching 200% of GDP by 2050, roughly double the amount (adjusted for the size of the economy) after WWII.</div><div><br></div><div>And
inflation is coming. I'm not parroting the news here--this is all
firsthand. In-N-Out Burger near my place here in California can't fill
positions starting people at $17/hr. Construction projects in the upper
midwest are getting shelved because lumber prices have doubled in the
last 12 months (my friend's dad owns a general contractor). More and
more I see billboards advertising not goods or services, but open jobs. I
was looking at replacing a roof on a building and the sheet metal guys
told me their lead times are 4-6 weeks just to construct a curb to put
under a rooftop HVAC unit. An electrician at one of my places is quoting
$600 (nearly double last year) to jumper two meter entry points because
base materials (copper and conduit) have gotten so expensive. <br></div><div><br></div><div>On
the other hand, it might be true that a big thing, like a high-speed
rail network, just isn't possible without bold federal action. I think
Kennedy had a lot to do with why the Apollo program was prioritized. I
just can't shake this feeling that we're using yesterday's economic
tools to try to fix today's problems, for which they're wholly unsuited.
We can't even keep what we have today in good repair, I don't know what
hope there is to do so if we add a bunch of new stuff. </div><div><br></div><div>Again, curious what others think. </div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 5:42 AM Andrew Russell <<a href="mailto:andy@themaintainers.org" target="_blank">andy@themaintainers.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div>Hi - <div><br></div><div>Another “ripped from the headlines” post :)</div><div><br></div><div>This one from Robert Reich, framing President Biden as Mr. Fix It: <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/05/joe-biden-mr-fix-it" target="_blank">https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/05/joe-biden-mr-fix-it</a></div><div><br></div><div>Andy<br><div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Lato;font-size:13px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><br><br></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Lato;font-size:13px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">_____</div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Lato;font-size:13px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Lato;font-size:13px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D.<br>+ Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, SUNY Polytechnic Institute<br>+ Co-Director, <a href="https://themaintainers.org/" target="_blank">The Maintainers</a></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Lato;font-size:13px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none">+ Co-Author, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576816/the-innovation-delusion-by-lee-vinsel-and-andrew-l-russell/" target="_blank">The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most</a></div>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr">+1 (217) 721-4258<br><a href="http://davidralbrecht.com/" target="_blank">http://davidralbrecht.com/</a><div><br></div><div>weniger, aber besser</div></div>
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