Are you hearing "Now is the time to improve infrastructure" a lot?

[nobody's_hero]

I'm hearing a lot of calls for "improving infrastructure" (mostly from democrats, but from republicans as well). On the surface, I could see why. Typically you want to make 'investments' (I use that term loosely when referring to gov't construction projects) during recessions, because if the economy starts booming it can become a very expensive time to expand.

But, isn't this call for infrastructure spending during bust periods, keynesianism, basically?

There's a cynical/pessimistic side of me that doesn't think the economy will ever fully recover, so basically what we're going to have are a bunch of nice highways, transit systems, and power plants that won't get used due to lack of need. I mean, how many people are going to go out driving on a new 8-lane highway when they have no job to get to? (makes me LOL a bit to think about it). Will they just ride high-speed trains for the hell of it?

Is it a chicken-and-egg case? I tend to think that the needs of businesses precipitate a desire for infrastructure, rather than infrastructure developing a need for business. (I don't know if I made that clear so here's an example):

Liberals tend to argue that 'if only we had nicer highways here in Atlanta, businesses would relocate here.' Perhaps they would, at least until they figured out how much they were gonna be taxed to repay the debt for all that stuff.

I feel sort of powerless to stop it though. I feel like politicians are gonna blow money on this stuff and then when businesses end up *not* relocating as hoped, they'll just blame someone else and expect taxpayers to pay for all this stuff anyway.

Atlanta is a traffic nightmare. But so is racking up debt with only wishful-thinking to pay it off.

[Seraphim]

that was 20 years ago.

[nobody's_hero]

that was 20 years ago.

lol, what do you mean? They're still championing it today but let it not be said that government doesn't try the same thing over and over again always expecting a different result.

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

I'm hearing a lot of calls for "improving infrastructure" (mostly from democrats, but from republicans as well). On the surface, I could see why. Typically you want to make 'investments' (I use that term loosely when referring to gov't construction projects) during recessions, because if the economy starts booming it can become a very expensive time to expand.

But, isn't this call for infrastructure spending during bust periods, keynesianism, basically?


Yes, but you make reasonable points. Also, labor demand from a government can create stimulus that wouldn't be there otherwise. Keynesians have that right in certain situations.




There's a cynical/pessimistic side of me that doesn't think the economy will ever fully recover, so basically what we're going to have are a bunch of nice highways, transit systems, and power plants that won't get used due to lack of need.


It will either recover as business cycles usually do, or it will collapse entirely, as ponzi schemes usually do. If it's a collapse, there's no telling what happens. Unmaintained infrastructure breaks down a lot faster.

[erowe1]

But, isn't this call for infrastructure spending during bust periods, keynesianism, basically?

Yes.

[Indy Vidual]

Some, but I mostly hear: Fiscal Cliff,
Fiscal Cliff,
Fiscal Cliff!!

[TheTexan]

It would be nice to see only 98% of my money get wasted rather than 99%. Roads are generally a good investment. Mostly because it's so easy that even the government has a hard time fucking it up (though of course they still do).

It's a shame roads represent only a tiny tiny tiny fraction of the money that is stolen from me.

[AuH20]

During those various periods of economic properity, they didn't have the wherewithal to maintain the infrastructure? Really? Do they think we were born yesterday?

[Schifference]

I use to own a company. When we were slow and had little or no work I had my guys do maintenance on machines. I spent money on things that I would not normally because I knew that when business picked up I could not afford to be down or operating equipment that could be running better/faster and producing more work in less hours. The problem with government workers is it takes too many people to dig a hole and too many to fill it back in. Efficiency is not in the Governments vocabulary.

[gwax23]

The government shouldnt be involved in infrastructure period. That includes roads or public transportation. It doesnt matter if times are good or bad infrastructure should be left to the private sector.