12 ms·

This is interesting but not really surprising. Most folks don't realize, because we don't stop and think about it, but the US has unbelievable amounts of infras

This is interesting but not really surprising. Most folks don't realize, because we don't stop and think about it, but the US has unbelievable amounts of infrastructure in this sort of condition. When things can last 40-100 years with little to no maintenance before catastrophic failure, there is _extraordinary_ incentive to defer maintenance until catastrophic failure occurs. For every mayor / governor / utility director etc. who experiences the eventual failure, there are dozens of predecessors who benefitted from deferring preventative action. Every previous leader who punted on maintenance and saved money or increased profits and reaped immediate tangible rewards. The company stock went up. Or the town paid it's firefighters pensions, which turned out to be more expensive than planned. "We ought to do more maintenance, but waiting another year or two will be okay," says everyone. "Next year, when we're not in such a bind, we'll catch up."

pavlov 6y ago
> “Most folks don't realize, because we don't stop and think about it, but the US has unbelievable amounts of infrastructure in this sort of condition.“ With respect, it’s obvious to anyone coming to USA from elsewhere in the world. Observing America is a strange mix of “wow, these people were so early, they really invented most of this stuff” and “wow, they really haven’t updated it since”. (The American banking system evokes the same bewilderment. Every system seems to run on a 1958 IBM mainframe where someone feeds my transactions on punch cards.)
- burlesona 6y ago
  That’s exactly right. I had a similar (but different) experience when I first stayed in Europe: I lived in a building that was built in the 1300’s and had changed very little since. I was astonished that anything that old could (a) still be around, (b) still be an ordinary use building. Surely the building should be a historical monument! But in fact most of the city was similarly old and there wasn’t really anything special about the building I lived in. At the time it was hard for me to imagine anything being that old, as (growing up in the US Midwest), things built in the 1920s were the oldest I’d ever seen and were considered ancient. I look back now and realize they were only one lifetime old (at the time). Culturally, Americans have this idea that their stuff is shiny, new, and “the best.” But this is actually out of date, and in fact as a country we are entering a new phase where for the first time the majority of infrastructure is old and wearing out, and the critical mass of old stuff that needs to be fixed is much larger than the amount of new stuff that needs to be built.
  - bavell 6y ago
    Your last paragraph is particularly insightful and I think it's something we all need to grok and come to terms with. Political landscape needs to shift to get past all the lip service and actually make real progress.
- gorbachev 6y ago
  Great comment, completely agreed. This is one of the first things I noticed after moving to the US. Everything is run down, except lobbies of Fortune 500 corporations.
MPSimmons 6y ago
We have so much infrastructure that was built, and now we lack politicians who have any interest in communicating the need to maintain it. Eisenhower started work on building the interstate system [1], but the components need to be maintained. Not just the surface roads and grades, but the bridges, engineered earth, and more. This costs money (and that money goes to the construction companies and workers who perform the work), but we have lost the national appetite for spending money on infrastructure, or really most things outside of the military, hence the relatively aimless goals of NASA (until Bridenstine, to whom I give a lot of credit for directing the aim of NASA, even if I might disagree slightly with his target). [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System
oftenwrong 6y ago
A contributing cause is the sheer amount of infrastructure in North America. Since the advent of suburban settlements, the amount of infrastructure has been growing at an unprecedented rate. One day all of it will reach end-of-life. The local governments haven't maintained it. They haven't been saving up to replace it. When it becomes an emergency, all of them will turn to their national government for help. This is partly human nature. Short-term gains overshadow the distant consequences. I am confident that in 60-100 years China will have an even larger infrastructure crisis.

pavlov 6y ago

> “Most folks don't realize, because we don't stop and think about it, but the US has unbelievable amounts of infrastructure in this sort of condition.“ With respect, it’s obvious to anyone coming to USA from elsewhere in the world. Observing America is a strange mix of “wow, these people were so early, they really invented most of this stuff” and “wow, they really haven’t updated it since”. (The American banking system evokes the same bewilderment. Every system seems to run on a 1958 IBM mainframe where someone feeds my transactions on punch cards.)

burlesona 6y ago
That’s exactly right. I had a similar (but different) experience when I first stayed in Europe: I lived in a building that was built in the 1300’s and had changed very little since. I was astonished that anything that old could (a) still be around, (b) still be an ordinary use building. Surely the building should be a historical monument! But in fact most of the city was similarly old and there wasn’t really anything special about the building I lived in. At the time it was hard for me to imagine anything being that old, as (growing up in the US Midwest), things built in the 1920s were the oldest I’d ever seen and were considered ancient. I look back now and realize they were only one lifetime old (at the time). Culturally, Americans have this idea that their stuff is shiny, new, and “the best.” But this is actually out of date, and in fact as a country we are entering a new phase where for the first time the majority of infrastructure is old and wearing out, and the critical mass of old stuff that needs to be fixed is much larger than the amount of new stuff that needs to be built.
- bavell 6y ago
  Your last paragraph is particularly insightful and I think it's something we all need to grok and come to terms with. Political landscape needs to shift to get past all the lip service and actually make real progress.
gorbachev 6y ago
Great comment, completely agreed. This is one of the first things I noticed after moving to the US. Everything is run down, except lobbies of Fortune 500 corporations.

MPSimmons 6y ago

We have so much infrastructure that was built, and now we lack politicians who have any interest in communicating the need to maintain it. Eisenhower started work on building the interstate system [1], but the components need to be maintained. Not just the surface roads and grades, but the bridges, engineered earth, and more. This costs money (and that money goes to the construction companies and workers who perform the work), but we have lost the national appetite for spending money on infrastructure, or really most things outside of the military, hence the relatively aimless goals of NASA (until Bridenstine, to whom I give a lot of credit for directing the aim of NASA, even if I might disagree slightly with his target). [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System

oftenwrong 6y ago

A contributing cause is the sheer amount of infrastructure in North America. Since the advent of suburban settlements, the amount of infrastructure has been growing at an unprecedented rate. One day all of it will reach end-of-life. The local governments haven't maintained it. They haven't been saving up to replace it. When it becomes an emergency, all of them will turn to their national government for help. This is partly human nature. Short-term gains overshadow the distant consequences. I am confident that in 60-100 years China will have an even larger infrastructure crisis.