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Not an engineer but, if your infrastructure is that old first of all I'd focus on maintenance, rather than having dick measuring contests with countries that ha

Not an engineer but, if your infrastructure is that old first of all I'd focus on maintenance, rather than having dick measuring contests with countries that have questionable attitudes towards pollution, safety and nature.

spiderfarmer 9y ago
The condition of the roads and infrastructure in a large part of the US is very, very bad when compared to countries like the Netherlands. It’s like the US is a superpower with third world infrastructure.
- arien 9y ago
  Maintenance of old infrastructure in large projects is difficult and budget for this purpose is hard to justify, while building new things gets harder due to (self imposed) new regulations and higher costs (outsourcing might be cheaper, but always has some risks...). I don't know, sounds very familiar :)
  - tomcooks 9y ago
    While I agree with you 101% I think that politics play a huge factor on this: no administration wants to do its homeworks, only for the next one to profit from the shiny new infrastructure. I believe this is a stronger factor in countries that have a maximum amount of mandates per administration.
  - spiderfarmer 9y ago
    I’ll float an idea that will cost me karma: you could raise taxes.
- saiya-jin 9y ago
  If road conditions would be the only attribute of modern society that US puts in 3rd world country bracket - but there is poor state of public education and healthcare, ridiculous prison state, very real police state, whole corporation/cash-oriented legislature compared to citizen-oriented like in Europe (often EU has to be the one fining/limiting US corporations when they don't give a fuck about human decency and moral behavior). Plus your taxes directly sponsor killing of hundreds of thousands innocents and pushing tens of millions into miserable life and making whole parts of this tiny little blue planet unstable for generations. Add semi-caste system in many parts based on your net worth. Real freedom is much lower too. Compared to EU, it's a great place to start/do business or just be really rich, but can be pretty miserable to be a regular human & employee. Sometimes I think the only remaining things that US shines with is the military power, high level of some universities and financial power from USD. All results of successes in 20th century and nothing China can't surpass if they decide to (and they the necessary ingredients - patience and focus).
- frockington 9y ago
  As someone who has traveled to many third world countries in SE Asia and South America I can confidently say that the US does not have third world infrastructure. Most claims of this are frequently done by somebody pushing some kind of narrative
  - spiderfarmer 9y ago
    I agree it’s a bit hyperbolic, but as I said, the US definately has very bad infrastructure in a large part while the other parts have good or very good infrastructure. On average experts rate it with a “D” https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure
echevil 9y ago
Not only old but also not enough. In areas that population have grown a lot in the past few decades, it makes a lot of sense to build new infrastructure to keep up with the demand

spiderfarmer 9y ago

The condition of the roads and infrastructure in a large part of the US is very, very bad when compared to countries like the Netherlands. It’s like the US is a superpower with third world infrastructure.

arien 9y ago
Maintenance of old infrastructure in large projects is difficult and budget for this purpose is hard to justify, while building new things gets harder due to (self imposed) new regulations and higher costs (outsourcing might be cheaper, but always has some risks...). I don't know, sounds very familiar :)
- tomcooks 9y ago
  While I agree with you 101% I think that politics play a huge factor on this: no administration wants to do its homeworks, only for the next one to profit from the shiny new infrastructure. I believe this is a stronger factor in countries that have a maximum amount of mandates per administration.
- spiderfarmer 9y ago
  I’ll float an idea that will cost me karma: you could raise taxes.
saiya-jin 9y ago
If road conditions would be the only attribute of modern society that US puts in 3rd world country bracket - but there is poor state of public education and healthcare, ridiculous prison state, very real police state, whole corporation/cash-oriented legislature compared to citizen-oriented like in Europe (often EU has to be the one fining/limiting US corporations when they don't give a fuck about human decency and moral behavior). Plus your taxes directly sponsor killing of hundreds of thousands innocents and pushing tens of millions into miserable life and making whole parts of this tiny little blue planet unstable for generations. Add semi-caste system in many parts based on your net worth. Real freedom is much lower too. Compared to EU, it's a great place to start/do business or just be really rich, but can be pretty miserable to be a regular human & employee. Sometimes I think the only remaining things that US shines with is the military power, high level of some universities and financial power from USD. All results of successes in 20th century and nothing China can't surpass if they decide to (and they the necessary ingredients - patience and focus).
frockington 9y ago
As someone who has traveled to many third world countries in SE Asia and South America I can confidently say that the US does not have third world infrastructure. Most claims of this are frequently done by somebody pushing some kind of narrative
- spiderfarmer 9y ago
  I agree it’s a bit hyperbolic, but as I said, the US definately has very bad infrastructure in a large part while the other parts have good or very good infrastructure. On average experts rate it with a “D” https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure

echevil 9y ago

Not only old but also not enough. In areas that population have grown a lot in the past few decades, it makes a lot of sense to build new infrastructure to keep up with the demand