Tragic symbol of need to build US infrastructure

[lektrode]

Re: Tragic symbol of need to build US infrastructure

Seems to me the investment class is too busy figuring out a way to make money off sending tweets from zero-emission electric hypertubes in space to worry about bread and butter these days. After all, who needs bread when you've got plenty of cake?

uh huh
+1
but to be 'fair' - it IS the political class thats supposed to come up with 'the plan' - or 'a plan' -
at least something of more import than their latest 'guns and marriage' distraction, eh dc?

[dcarrigg]

Re: Tragic symbol of need to build US infrastructure

Oh yeah. They're supposed to. I just don't think they get their plans from anyone but the investor class anymore. So you get hundreds of millions pumped into tesla that could have gone to a much less sexy bridge repair. And hundreds of billions pumped into wall street that might have fixed 30% of the problem. And on and on it goes.

[flintlock]

Re: Tragic symbol of need to build US infrastructure

People today worship money over all other concerns. They get a leadership that reflects their own values. Is that so surprising? Bankrupt, materialistic cultures should not expect their elected leaders to be any better. The last vestiges of character and integrity have been swept aside in the name of "success". Winning trumps all. Morality is relative. Stealing a billion $ is okay. Stealing a loaf of bread is not.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Tragic symbol of need to build US infrastructure

Our boring infrastructure is being liquidated.
Same as if you and I bought a little manufacturing company and did these things

- hiring freeze, let staff shrink by attrition
- zero out the preventative maintenance budget, emergency repairs only with mgt sign-off
- pay freezes
- slash sales staff, service only existing accounts
- draw down inventory as sales shrink
- when production machinery and sales reach critical levels, build out last remaining raw materials.
- go to final shutdown by firing staff and selling machinery and buildings
- collect last receivables

I worked with a CFO who had been part of a firm that did this as their business strategy, liquidating little companies.
He tells me you can make good money but it's hard to sleep well.
Seems like we are liquidating USA Inc.
.
.
.

[lektrode]

Re: Tragic symbol of need to build US infrastructure

the real question here tho - on the topic of JOBS CREATION - which has been buried in lip service/BS - while the political class has saw fit to bailout (the profit margins of) lower manhattan - one would think that the ole 'tried n true' method of pump priming would be executed - esp by a dem administration, that apparently takes its cues from their heyday - that would be the 1930's and FDR - and we can even seem to get em to do something like propose raising the roadfuel tax and/or chg'g it from a flat levy based in pennies/gal to a %/gal with a floor - TO FIX THE HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES???

i mean what - the 'alternative' energy brigade is calling all the shots?
meanwhile they allow (pander to) some tiny sliver of the electorate to both shutdown pipeline construction (a good % of which are UNION jobs) as well as the nuke power/waste solution (there in prince harry's district, AFTER all the billions have been spent) - and IGNORE the only real alternative (that N word again) - that with a stroke of the pen (exec order, if congress fails to make a GD decision) would begin HUGE INFRASTRUCURE BUILD OUT in its own right (and we dont even need to get into solving global climate warming change, or saving a trillion here and there on endless war for oil)

with near daily screaming from the chattering class about NOT SPENDING ENOUGH

would FDR have pull this kinda s__t ?

i DONT think so.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Tragic symbol of need to build US infrastructure

For what it's worth, lek, I don't think so either. These people live in a curated bubble now. The only time they're even near the plebs is to give grand speeches to them off a teleprompter. If they could trade them for a laugh/clap track, they would. The parties are not parties anymore. They are fundraising machines for hollywood studios now. There is no interaction with or feedback from anyone on the ground, except in the form of poll testing messages. There are no local leaders with the trust and backing of the community to woo. Just dopes to convince to vote for you with commercials.

FDR was wealthy and pampered. Some would say he was a mamma's boy. But he had Warm Springs Georgia and could get out to see the soup lines for real. And I'm pretty convinced he actually cared about these people. And he got things done. It has been a long time since we've seen that. Now every single event is curated, scripted, guarded weeks in advance, and made-for-TV. The only times candidates actually speak their minds are behind closed doors with the big donors, who are the only people they seem to really care about. And even then, somebody sneaks a cell camera in and it leaks to TV. What we have no is no longer politics. It's Disneyland. And it's been moving that way ever since the Nixon/JFK debate.

Since it's Disneyland, you need to send out some good photos of you and the family on space mountain or in front of the plastic castle. Nobody cares about seeing photos of the shuttle-bus that actually gets you there or behind the scenes work of people making the place operational. They just want to see little jimmy and suzy in with Cinderella. That's why we get W. in a flight suit under the "Mission Accomplished" banner and Obama with the wind turbines. A photo in front of a newly rebuilt Skagit river bridge just doesn't cut. So it falls down.

And since we have no earmarks anymore and haven't managed to pass a budget in years, the future doesn't look bright. Speaking of which, can any of you imagine any of the Senate oldtimers reading Green Eggs and Ham on the Senate floor for the cameras? Talk about Disneyland. They just sit there and openly mock the Republic now. I mean, where do you go from Green Eggs and Ham? Do you just pull out an iPod and sing along with Lady Gaga into the mic? Forget the fact infrastructure's falling apart, labor participation is plunging, the median household hasn't seen a dollar's real increase in income in 30 years even though real GDP bumped by 70%, we've got the biggest deficit since WWII, China's rising, the rust belt's dying, there hasn't been a budget in years, and real people are out there who need help. Let's just sing Lady Gaga for the camera on the Senate floor.

Weapons of mass distraction. Coalition of the fiddling. Axis of weasel.

[wayiwalk]

Re: Tragic symbol of need to build US infrastructure

+1, +1, +1, +1 for the last four posts.

Engineering and infrastructure repair/upgrading is not exciting work compared to whatever the media is fixated on.

You can't hold a committee hearing/ media circus/ public hanging for the parties responsible for a bridge that is well designed and constructed to the highest standards.

The employees in the profession generally struggle to make ends meet and then if they marry and have kids, possibly chose to encourage their children to follow in their footsteps (GO STEM!!!).

Yep.

Just wait until we outsource all of the engineering of our infrastructure. I'll be sure to move to a place without bridges or tall buildings.