Public Infrastructure

* This article is adapted from Reihan Salam's and Ross Douthat's Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.

It was only four years ago that conservatives -- and a great many liberals -- were convinced that the Democratic party was doomed to become a purely regional institution: "a national party no more," to borrow the title of Georgia Democrat-turned-Bush supporter Zell Miller's 2003 memoir. Pundits brandished county-by-county maps showing blue enclaves… more

Chairman, Oberstar, Representative Mica, and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today on the question of "financing infrastructure investments."

Over the past several decades, we have accumulated a sizeable public infrastructure deficit. As a result, a variety of infrastructure bottlenecks-traffic congested roads, clogged ports, and an antiquated air traffic system, to mention just a few-have begun to undercut our economy's efficiency and undermine our quality of life.

To paraphrase an old axiom: You don’t buy water, you only rent it. So why did Americans spend nearly $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, when we could have guzzled tap water at up to about one ten-thousandth the cost? The facile answer is marketing, marketing and more marketing, but Elizabeth Royte goes much deeper into the drink in “Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It,” streaming trends cultural, economic, political and hydrological into an… more

Today the New America Foundation released a policy paper by Douglas Rediker and Heidi Crebo-Rediker, co-directors of the New America Foundation's Global Strategic Finance Initiative. The executive summary is pasted below. Also, see a PDF of the entire policy paper: http://www.newamerica.net/files/Financing_America_Infrastructure.PDF

Contact: Erin Drankoski, 202-997-8727, drankoski@newamerica.net. For further information on New America's Global Strategic Finance Initiative and Economic Growth Program, click here.

Executive Summary

America's basic infrastructure is outdated, worn, and in some cases, failing. Most experts… more

America’s basic infrastructure is outdated, worn, and in some cases, failing. Most experts agree that it is inadequate for meeting the demands of the 21st-century global economy. If we are to remain competitive, we must invest in capital assets like roads, ports, bridges, mass transit, water systems, and broadband infrastructure. Many other countries -- both rich and poor -- see investing in infrastructure as imperative for economic survival and success in an increasingly competitive economic environment. But the United States… more

Below is a longer version of the article published in The Nation. For the version appearing in The Nation, please click here.

Historical analogies are never exact. Yet many of the choices we have before us today are similar to ones that an earlier generation of progressives faced as the 1932 election approached. As we do today, the progressives of the 20th century confronted a society beset by a huge gap between classes and an economy laid flat by… more

The Infrastructure Crisis (Civil Engineering Magazine)

... The fact that the infrastructure has not been a national priority is evident from key economic data. From 1950 to 1970, for example, the United States devoted 3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to infrastructure spending; since 1980, however, spending on infrastructure has been cut by a third, to just 2 percent of GDP, notes Sherle R. Schwenninger, the New York City–based director of the economic growth program of… more

Responding to the damage caused by the slowdown in housing, the subprime mortgage crisis, and fears of a U.S. recession, the New America Foundation held a national policy forum on the need for a new era of public investment on Friday, November 30, 2007.

Despite the recent economic slowdown, New America Foundation board member Bernard L. Schwartz opened the conference with an optimistic message. The dynamism of the American economy, Schwartz argues, bolstered by robust public investment, can overcome… more

For more than a decade, rising asset prices have driven the economy, benefiting the wealthy but doing relatively little to improve either the economic status of the majority of Americans or the country’s overall competitiveness. Rising stock and housing prices created staggering short-term increases in wealth for some, but did little to bolster the nation’s preeminence in technology, industry, or agriculture.

In order to retool the economy and generate balanced, robust job growth, the government should focus… more

In the wake of infrastructure related tragedies that struck Minnesota and New Orleans, political leaders have demonstrated once again that they do not understand the benefits of public investment. Mistakenly seeing only the financial burden of public investment and ignoring the future returns, they have failed to allocate enough public funds to adequately repair America’s roads, bridges, railways and electric grids. As a consequence, America is stopped short of reaching its full economic potential.

The costs of our crumbling infrastructure include… more