This is one amazing chart — documenting just how much we are underspending in fixing and upgrading our infrastructure, keeping in mind that we were under-investing in infrastructure already. This chart includes state and local spending (not just the Feds) and should be a Very Big Red Flag:
That massive drop also represented an opportunity — not just to employ Americans, but to get cheap money to invest in ourselves for a change. This is completely unnecessary austerity in a thing that we will always need — bridges, roads, tunnels, airports, train stations, ports. Up in Pennsylvania, they’ve got a reputation for some of the worst bridges in the country — meaning that truckers moving goods need to spend time and money to go around some of the weight limited bridges. And in Pennsylvania, they can’t quite get the fixing of their bridges prioritized, while making sure that Shell Oil gets a massive tax subsidy (even though it is starting to look like Shell’s facility won’t get done), and school systems all over the state have had their funding cut.
There isn’t one bit of this infrastructure that is not vital to commerce here. But this chart shows just how fundamentally stupid starving ourselves really is.