There is much discussion surrounding the president’s $3T infrastructure proposal and how to pay for it. Predictably, sides are being drawn regarding how to pay for it, usual according to political persuasions.
Virtually all of our existing infrastructure was built in the past century by private businesses paid for by the American tax payer. The infrastructure we're talking about includes the interstate highway system, clean water delivery & treatment facilities, coastal ports, railroad tracks and facilities, airports and space facilities to name a few. The nation's original railroads were largely funded through private investment essentially subsidized and paid for by granting the railroads very generous rights of ways across our nation and supporting tariff regulations.
An interesting question is why did the country make such a significant investment and to whose benefit. The answer is clear. It allowed America to advance to become the world's lone super power. To set the world's agenda and to promote freedom and democracy. If we wish to stay in this position, then continued investment is the great enabler of a shared prosperity - the country's infrastructure should be among our highest national priorities.
Much of the proposed infrastructure bill is intended to repair roads, bridges, refurbish airports and other key components of our nationwide transportation system. Currently, our nation is ranked 13th in infrastructure quality. That seems to me to be a national shame. Infrastructure like most things gets used up, decays over time or becomes obsolete. So since our fellow citizens from the early last century built and foot the bill for our current infrastructure, it falls to us to repair, replace and upgrade our nation’s current infrastructure. It’s too bad we as a nation waited so long to do what needs to be done. It's far better to stay on top of maintenance as it usually far cheaper to correct problems early then wait for catastrophic failures.
Personally, I don’t know anyone who likes to pay taxes. So it should come as no surprise that the paying for infrastructure is not creating a ground swell of support. However, it is necessary if as a society, we want nice things.
The current discussions include raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals and businesses. This makes sense to me since corporations are the heaviest users of our nations infrastructure. But corporations will be only the first in line to pay. Unsurprising, corporations will raise prices to cover at least a portion of their tax bill passing on those costs to the consumer. So in the end everyone ends up paying for needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades. That seems fair.
A final thought. The jobs created by this massive infrastructure proposal are likely to be high paying union jobs across the country. These jobs cannot be exported to other nations where labor is cheaper. Seems like a win win to me.
Virtually all of our existing infrastructure was built in the past century by private businesses paid for by the American tax payer. The infrastructure we're talking about includes the interstate highway system, clean water delivery & treatment facilities, coastal ports, railroad tracks and facilities, airports and space facilities to name a few. The nation's original railroads were largely funded through private investment essentially subsidized and paid for by granting the railroads very generous rights of ways across our nation and supporting tariff regulations.
An interesting question is why did the country make such a significant investment and to whose benefit. The answer is clear. It allowed America to advance to become the world's lone super power. To set the world's agenda and to promote freedom and democracy. If we wish to stay in this position, then continued investment is the great enabler of a shared prosperity - the country's infrastructure should be among our highest national priorities.
Much of the proposed infrastructure bill is intended to repair roads, bridges, refurbish airports and other key components of our nationwide transportation system. Currently, our nation is ranked 13th in infrastructure quality. That seems to me to be a national shame. Infrastructure like most things gets used up, decays over time or becomes obsolete. So since our fellow citizens from the early last century built and foot the bill for our current infrastructure, it falls to us to repair, replace and upgrade our nation’s current infrastructure. It’s too bad we as a nation waited so long to do what needs to be done. It's far better to stay on top of maintenance as it usually far cheaper to correct problems early then wait for catastrophic failures.
Personally, I don’t know anyone who likes to pay taxes. So it should come as no surprise that the paying for infrastructure is not creating a ground swell of support. However, it is necessary if as a society, we want nice things.
The current discussions include raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals and businesses. This makes sense to me since corporations are the heaviest users of our nations infrastructure. But corporations will be only the first in line to pay. Unsurprising, corporations will raise prices to cover at least a portion of their tax bill passing on those costs to the consumer. So in the end everyone ends up paying for needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades. That seems fair.
A final thought. The jobs created by this massive infrastructure proposal are likely to be high paying union jobs across the country. These jobs cannot be exported to other nations where labor is cheaper. Seems like a win win to me.
