America's Infrastructure Crisis: Are We Really A Developed Country?

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Steven G. Brant
America's Infrastructure Crisis: Are We Really A Developed Country?
Posted August 19, 2007 | 03:25 AM (EST)



In the three and a half years in which I worked in the office of Dr. Russell Ackoff, my mentor in the field of Systems Thinking, he probably talked about one thing more than anything else: the true nature of development. "Development," Russ would say, "increases the capacity of people to manage their own lives. Growth -- which is what people usually talk about when they say a community or a nation is getting better -- is about the accumulation of greater amounts of things, some of which are beneficial and some of which are not. Growth is not the same as development."

One of the expressions Russ used most often to make this point is If you give someone a fish, you feed them for a day. If you teach them to fish, they can feed themselves for a lifetime.

When it comes to our nation's infrastructure, I fear that our political and civic leaders have -- for decades -- been giving us "fish" in the form of lots of roads, bridges, mass transit systems, utility systems, and other elements of what is sometimes referred to as the built environment. We know who these leaders are. They're the people in the photographs taken at the ground breaking ceremonies when new projects start... and at the ribbon-cutting ceremonies when projects are complete. After that, we rarely hear from them again.

Well, perhaps with the collapse of the I-35 bridge, we will. In fact, we already are... in the personages of Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Chuck Hagel (R-NB). Their National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007 is an important first step in moving we Americans past our long history of "being given fish" and towards a future in which we learn "how to fish for ourselves" and then act of that new knowledge.

Of course, by "learn how to fish" I mean learn how to take care of what we've got... not just admire it when it's new and then let it fall apart under our very noses.

Russ loves using this fishing analogy to help people understand what true development is. And -- because he emphasizes that development involves wisdom that focuses on long-term (not short-term) results - I'd like to start a national dialog on the following question:

Is the United States truly a developed country? Or are we just a "built up" country?

It is common to talk about how our world is divided into the developed and under-developed nations. And the US -- based on its GDP and other factors -- always falls into the "developed nations" category. But based on my knowledge that to be truly developed is to know how to take care of yourself and what you have -- not just to have a lot of stuff -- I no longer personally put the USA into that category.

I think -- and this seems especially appropriate when you consider how young America really is, in "country years" -- that America is in a category that may have never existed before. Neither under-developed nor developed, America appears to be a "proto-developed country." We've accumulated a lot but do not yet have the wisdom to manage what we've got. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/americas-infrastructure-_b_61000.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. I've read that other countries, like China and India, are TOTALLY outspending

and outclassing us on building modern infrastructure and systems, ports, etc. We are going to lose the economic edge if we don't have efficient modern systems and structure for trade and manufacturing. I really like the Infrastructure Bank idea, although some here may not like its reliance on public-private funding (bonds and stuff, I'm not real clear on how it works) rather than just thru tax money.

[leftofthedial]

2. repuke anti-tax policies have gutted our aging and ailing infrastructure

we are FAR behind the norm for developed nations in transportation, communication, health care, the social safety net and education.

[jtrockville]

3. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

I haven't seen any ranking in the last few years where USA was #1. We've lost our prominence.

I don't even think we can call ourselves "the richest country in the world" since we're operating on credit.

[izquierdista]

4. Were we....Past tense

The United States used to be a developed country. Not any more. Where are the train stations and railroads -- gone. Where is the World Trade Center -- gone. Where is the city of New Orleans (not the Arlo Guthrie song, that's on YouTube) -- gone.

Most of the money for the nation's infrastructure has gone to two things: freeways and gated communities. A drive through Orange County, California is illustrative of the trend. The 243 tollway is a superb road that connects Rancho Santa Margarita to the rest of southern California. That benefits the wealthy few and the poor in Santa Ana are left to fend for themselves. A small amount of money was spent on Metrolink, but nothing in comparison to what was spent on the freeways and gated communities.

Part of it has to do with the private nature of American capital and the lack of public capital. Since 1980, public money has only been used to benefit the wealthy few, instead of ALL the people. Stadiums, hospitals, factories, power generation facilities, most are privately owned and if they don't turn a profit, they are bulldozed and the land sold for new development. Cities and counties don't own anything beyond the parks and a few administrative buildings, so they are powerless when it comes to the course of their development or decline.

[DaveJ]

5. Lack of ownership, responsibility, concern...

If people felt they had a stake in their communities, there would be incentive to take care of them, but since we have no solid stake in what happens around us, there really is no reason to care.

Why bother doing a good job at work, when only the stockholders benefit from the profits?

Why bother cleanup up around your home, when you will never own it?

Why bother checking the structural integrity of a bridge, when it doesn't affect you? It's not YOUR bridge. Some contractor gets paid $1000 and hour to inspect it, not because he cares, just because he wants to put money into his bank account. No money=No inspection. If you happen to be intelligent enough to notice any problems, who the heck is going to listen to you??

It used to be that they said retail theft affects the bottom line, and thus the thief is stealing from the employees. Not anymore. The employees will get paid the same bottom of the barrel wages no matter how much the company makes.

And making money is not about being skilled, it's about either who you know, or some scheme like selling interest only loans, or hedge funds.

But there is little incentive to do a good job. Doing a good job, work ethic, etc., are just not worth the trouble to most people.