[Themaintainers] Joe Biden as Mr. Fix It

[Casey Boardman]

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).

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).

Also curious what others think.
-Casey


On Thu, Apr 8, 2021 at 2:05 PM David Albrecht <albrecht.dr at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have to admit feeling rather divided about this whole thing. I wonder
> what others think.
>
> 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 *big* 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 baseline projection
> <https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56977> has US debt reaching 200% of GDP
> by 2050, roughly double the amount (adjusted for the size of the economy)
> after WWII.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Again, curious what others think.
>
> On Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 5:42 AM Andrew Russell <andy at themaintainers.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi -
>>
>> Another “ripped from the headlines” post :)
>>
>> This one from Robert Reich, framing President Biden as Mr. Fix It:
>> https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/05/joe-biden-mr-fix-it
>>
>> Andy
>>
>>
>> _____
>>
>> Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D.
>> + Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, SUNY Polytechnic Institute
>> + Co-Director, The Maintainers <https://themaintainers.org/>
>> + Co-Author, The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has
>> Disrupted the Work That Matters Most
>> <https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576816/the-innovation-delusion-by-lee-vinsel-and-andrew-l-russell/>
>>
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>
>
> --
> +1 (217) 721-4258
> http://davidralbrecht.com/
>
> weniger, aber besser
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