Is America the greatest country in the world? Absolutely not - it [STILL] needs serious rehab! For this discussion I hope you're sitting down though pacing in a long hall might help you. With what I discovered. back in 2021..I know pacing helped me!
America does have the greatest PR [Political Ruse] machine. Because on the heels of Election 2020 with the usual flurry of Presidential Executive Orders there was the formation of an actual Bill to address America’s 15 years of neglected infrastructure. After 9/11 the 6.4 trillion dollars that went to Afghanistan & Iraq would have updated everything - SO we-the-people need to ask serious targeted questions and insist on serious targeted answers - not double-talk or excuses or vague; "I'll look into that."
When candidate Trump labelled DC a "swamp" - he was mistaken. The Hill in the District of Columbia is actually one l-o-n-g and w-i-d-e BUFFET from which far too many ranking employees and federally elected peers, who hold a public position of trust - FEED... [Both parties!] Liberal and Conservative members of Congress and the Senate are typically busy shuffling budgets-from one ledger column to another.
AIRPORTS...The last time America's national airports received a major overall update was in the late 50s and early 60s. Since then many systems have been patched together not even on a regular schedule - but too often only after a malfunction that narrowly averted an incident. [Somewhat newsworthy of late.] **Nationally an investment of 130 Billion or 26B a year for five years, would bring our airports [only] up to 2015 technological standards.
ELECTRICAL GRID...If you don't want to lay awake nights terrified then don't read Gretchen Bakke's book; "The Grid". Between the mid 1950s and 1980s major power outages averaged less than 5 in a year. In 2007 there were 76 reported. By 2011 the increase was more than 300 a year. Over the last 10 years there has been a 64% increase in outages over the previous ten years, though taxpayers have invested millions in subsides for the development of renewable energy. However, America isn't able to take advantage of green-energy like more solar or wind power because most of it can't be integrated into the aging grid. Our electrical grid is not capable of 'storing' the additional power. Worse yet, our national electrical grid is a national security risk - weak and unstable - a fact that’s not a secret to factions with the capacity to crash it. **The estimated cost to update America's electrical grid is a cheery 5T! That's Trillion, my fellow travelers!
MASS TRANSIT...One hundred years ago the public transportation system in America was the envy of the world. One hundred years later - much of America's mass transit is still 100 years old. Most rural communities once relied on train service that moved people and goods between towns and cities. Much larger urban areas enjoyed an above ground trolley system that ran off clean electricity later converted to buses that ran on electricity as well as the underground subways. However, by the 1920s a gasoline powered motor car for every family had become almost a quest, more so than even a house. In each state, depending on population, updating and restructuring public mass transit varies greatly from city to city. **Regardless, the minimum $ price tag starts with a rather large 'B'. Though more change centers around turning it over to private enterprise so that public-transit becomes true user-pay. But, would it be affordable?
U.S. SEA PORTS...Our ports have become another open border option for disturbingly illegal conduct. From sea to shining sea our east coast, west coast, along the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes - America's ability to keep pace with the rest of the shipping world peaked in the mid 1980s. We have an archaic technology security structure with tracking procedures that hold water like a coffee filter. If the U.S. could export farm crops, manufactured goods, natural gas, oil and raw materials more efficiently, it could also mean a better balance of trade. **The cost here, relatively speaking, is only in the millions of dollars.
WATER...Through the 1920s, slower in the 1930s and 1940s - then resuming through the post war boom of the 1950s and 60s - a vast sewer system of POTWs [Public Owned Treatment Works] and clean drinking water, was the pride of every community from small towns to large cities. However, less than 12% of the sewage POTWs or pipes carrying drinking water have been replaced in original areas since. Unless there was a main break that required localized repair the issue never rose to the surface [excuse the pun] which is what happened in Flint, Michigan [2018]. Even the 'newer' water systems engineered in our ever-expanding suburbs during the 1970s, 80s and 90s have remained out of sight, out of mind for most municipalities. And since we're already 25 years into the 21st Century every pipe laid prior to 1980 is now an exhibit for the Antique Road Show. **I don't like this number either, but the estimate for a national-overdue-plumbing update is - 384 Billion.
Beyond the water needed for all neighborhoods to homes and businesses, is a threat to our water source itself. The average age of America's 91,000 Dams is 52 years. **With slashed budgets causing inadequate maintenance factored with environmental issues, we can expect that any dams built between 1930 and 1970 are already on the verge of being structurally compromised.
The dams that failed [May, 2020] in Midland County, Michigan forced 10,000 Edenville residents to evacuate. All had poor federal inspection reports for twenty years straight! WHY? Why after five years or eight years wasn't structural weaknesses corrected by the Army Corp of Engineers then the cost subtracted from some of Michigan's federal funding? **In the meantime, the cost to correct dams that if they failed would threaten significant loss of human life, was estimated at 45 Billion+ in 2021. To properly correct all structurally compromised dams, the cost estimate is at 64 Billion+!
BRIDGES...The vast majority of America's 'newer' bridges are already 60 years old. Just addressing the backlog of tackling those maintenance and improvement projects would take five consecutive years. **The cost to correct all presently unsafe bridges is 189 Billion.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY...If you have been impressed with the stats so far then you're gonna luv how our government departments are run. Some I.T. was first installed and in use when Nixon was President! I kid you not! This - besides being connected to an aging grid - is also a National Security/cyber security issue. Which is why so much outsourcing is done to private contractors - but that’s not a cost savings, as contractors need to update technology too and who are these private contractors? How do we monitor them?
Federal I.T.-Our DEFENSE DEPARTMENT had a 53-year-old [backup] system to send and receive nuclear emergency action messages running on a 1970s computer that used 8-inch floppy disks. Replacement parts were difficult to find so thank goodness for 3D printers. It was set for a complete replacement in 2020 however, the Chief Information Officer reasoned that the system was secure - because - it was a closed system. [An outhouse is a closed system too, but let's see a show of hands for those who want one.]
Besides an aging federal information technology gap, local civic overspending followed by severe budget cuts in nearly every state in the Union [after the 2008 financial crisis] was exposed further with Covid19. When millions of people applied for Unemployment Insurance Benefits - it wasn't the number of people applying that caused nearly every state system to freeze - it was aging technology unable to handle increased traffic. [5G may be possible, but not at any government department near you...] Once again who gets inconvenienced? Only - the very people whose taxes pay for state and federal infrastructure. Mismanaged public funds has been chronic for decades because there is no voter oversight and mismanagement continued because there was no consequences for careless fiscal performance.
Federal I.T. -The master file at the INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE where the public's taxes are assessed, and refunds are generated ran on a 1959 'assembly-language-code'. This early code only ran on a single computer that was difficult to maintain and was the main reason why the IRS had difficulty addressing refund fraud.
Federal I.T. - Our SOCIAL SECURITY Administration had a slightly 'newer' system, only 31 years old. However, it has been patched together with no less than 162 subsystems - some of which run on an early 1960s programing language called COBOL...[See also IBM museum archives!] And if you have a weak heart then don't read about Medicare.
Federal I.T. - A 26-year-old computer system used by the STATE DEPARTMENT to track and validate annual visa information for about 55,000+ foreign nationals is no longer supported by the original vendor. And - its system like all the other government departments eats up a large chunk of the annual budget in maintenance that would be significantly reduced and more efficiently used if replaced completely then kept updated.
Federal I.T. - Then again the cost of maintaining the TRANSPORTATION Department records to monitor thousands of companies that make, and ship, and store hazardous materials has steadily increased annually with a database record system that pretty much parallels that of the State Department. It too is patched, outdated and vulnerable.
**February 2018 [then] President Trump presented an Infrastructure Plan to the 115th Republican [majority] Congress. The proposal was a cost savings for voters with joint spending of $200 Billion in federal funding and 1.5 Trillion from the private sector. Democrats opposed that Bill due to its structure of state and local funding with private investment. Okay - was that desperately needed Infrastructure Plan so flawed that the Republican majority couldn't work with most Democrats? Though - at the time - there was also a persistent undermining Republican faction led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. John McCain [R-AZ] supported by Sen. Jeff Flake [R-AZ] and Sen. Mitt Romney [R-UT]. This meant, that once again, what was 'best' for Main Street America [as a whole] was sacrificed—by both sides.
Typically, politicians don't look ahead beyond 'their' next election campaign, when they should be factoring in the nation’s grandchildren.
For the record I'm a registered Independent who voted for Bush George H. [1st term], Clinton B. [1st term], Bush George W. [both terms], Obama B. [both terms] then yup - Trump D. [1st term] because—somehow Hilary Clinton hip-checked Bernie Sanders off the 2016 nomination stage. Then too the Benghazi riot was/is still not explained nor how 300+ Classified State Department emails ended up on the personal laptop of Anthony Weiner [a convicted sex offender]. Sorry, I digress…
Moving on...My point here is that year after year - decade after decade - generation after generation - citizens were born then aged while infrastructure that needed regular budgeted attention, also aged. **The 10 best states for maintaining basic infrastructure: Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Georgia. The 10 worst states for infrastructure: Mississippi, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Naturally each of the other 30 states [not including our 5 U.S. Protectorates] fall somewhere in the middle. Thanks to Google you can look up infrastructure for your state.
Like you and about 180 million other voters, I wasn’t sure what was happening in DC since DJT’s [2nd] Presidential Inauguration, but the few Federal Aid and Social Security statistics Trump shared during his March 5th Address to Congress, made me curious enough to search further. Then last Thursday I caught the interview that Brett Baier [FOX] hosted with the entire 7member DOGE team: www.doge.gov
AND—besides writing to the White House [yes, we can/should do that]: www.whitehouse.gov - I routinely follow FOX, CNN & PBS & CBS & NBC & ABC & MSNBC… We can write to networks -and- all/any elected representatives regardless of party. Please don’t vandalize of set anything on fire in protest - write instead - let your representative[s] know you exist…
Once again your research is amazing Sherrie, but very depressing to read.The US has spent so much money on other countries ( for good reasons) but at the cost of ignoring its own needs.
Amazing simply, amazing...the only modern Governments likely to be on top of their infrastructure are China, Japan and some middle East oil exporters, oh yeah Russia - yes I said Russia. While the US has invested in blowing to hell Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, much of North Africa, Gaza, soon IRAN, and various other Countries starting largely with North Korea early 1950's, Vietnam, in the 1960's etc, etc. etc. the rest of the world or at least parts of it prioritized their populations needs.
Tell me which US Government (after World War 2) prioritized what the population needed ( oh that's right they shot that guy )? With your list ...It's easy to see what the US cares about and prioritizes! The multiple years of utter incompetence, fraud and outright theft, and the self serving nature of the political class it's there for all to see.
But do you feel "SAFE"??? (Sarcasm) - mean while a good chunk of you will soon be cold, hungry, and in the DARK, and now can't afford to buy a dozen eggs!! Good article just really, really late.