New Jersey vs. China: Guess Which One Gets Infrastructure Right

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-johnson/59044/new-jersey-vs-china-guess-which-one-gets-infrastructure-right

New Jersey vs. China: Guess Which One Gets Infrastructure Right
Infrastructure
by Dave Johnson | October 17, 2014 - 9:29am

Here are two contrasting infrastructure stories to following up on yesterday’s post, “Investment In Infrastructure Would Cure Today’s Slow Growth Problem”:

The U.S. has deferred maintaining (never mind modernizing) our infrastructure for so long (since the Reagan tax cuts?) that the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure gives us a D+, and states flatly that we need to spend $3.6 trillion by 2020 just to get back up to basic standards. (Imagine how many people would be hired, how many contractors and suppliers would be booming, and how many small businesses that sell to them would also be booming!)

Here is just one small example of America’s crumbling infrastructure and the economic consequences. The story, “New Jersey Rail Nightmare: A Sign of the Infrastructure Crisis to Come” in the Fiscal Times begins as follows:

The federal government’s failure to invest in the country’s infrastructure has become such a significant concern to professional planners that both national and international organizations regularly rate the U.S. among the worst developed countries in terms of its maintenance of roads, ports, rail transit, and the electrical grid. Even so, barring major power outages or high-profile bridge collapses, the country’s crumbling infrastructure rarely penetrates the consciousness of the general public.

[AndreaCG]

1. It's not the federal government's fault

That Chris Christie turned down 600 million for a new tunnel to relieve the already overtaxed existing ones between NJ and NY. That was sheer partisan politics, which Christie is notorious for. His arrogance hurts both NJ and NY residents, but what can you expect from Governor Bridgegate?