Mushrooms won't fix our crumbling infrastructure. But planned obsolescence might. The biggest problem our crumbling infrastructure faces is the cost of aging:

Mushrooms won't fix our crumbling infrastructure. But planned obsolescence might. The biggest problem our crumbling infrastructure faces is the cost of aging: most heavily trafficked bridges are nearing the end of their expected lifespan, 11% of our bridges are structurally deficient, and we don't budget enough money to keep up with the backlog of bridges to repair. As bridges are allowed to age and maintenance is deferred, the cost to repair them triples. And since it's so expensive, we get lost in debate over whether we should replace them. If we designed our infrastructure to actually collapse at a set time, it might instill the correct level of panic for government to actually fund and repair our infrastructure before it kills people and burdens the economy. Without a deadline, government just waits for the eventual emergency.