Our Crumbling Infrastructure

[dtotire]

This afternoon I watched a presentation by The History Channel about our crumbling infrastructure. It mentioned that during the Eisenhower administration we spent about 14% of our economy on the country's infrastructure. Today we are only spending around 2 1/2%, which is the reason for its decline. When Eisenhower was president the top income tax rate was 91%. It was a good program to watch. The name of the program was "The Crumbling Of America".

[kestrel91316]

1. Ventura Blvd, the main drag here in the San Fernando Valley, is crumbling to

pieces. They aren't even fixing the potholes anymore.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. If you want to get really concerned

go to Historic Bridges of the United States. It's a website that documents most of the bridges in the US. Those still in use as highway bridges have ratings with them on their superstructure, substructure, and deck. Many many have a rating below 50%. Right below those stats are the number of vehicles crossing per day. I don't get too worried if the bridge has a load of maybe 40, but some of these bridges carry thousands a day, even though their rating is serious. One bridge, which has finally been torn down, was rated Imminent Collapse for FOUR YEARS before they closed it down--and it had hundreds of vehicles crossing it every day.

(Note: I'm not that concerned with bridges labeled "Functionally Obsolete". All that means is that they are narrow and usually lack breakdown lanes. So don't let that term scare you.)

[BlueJazz]

3. I watched it also..Damn...pretty eye-opening and scary in the sense that..

...States barely have the money to keep things going as they are...much less start large expensive projects.
But..as one speaker said...Infrastucture is an assest. :)

[DCKit]

4. If infrastructure is an asset, it's a wonder the Pols don't make us pay to fix it...

so they can sell it to the highest corporate bidder for pennies on the dollar and a few hundred thousand in campaign donations.

Obviously, even the professional criminals are getting dumber.