The Impotence of Impaired Infrastructure

Politics has impaired America's infrastructure to the point of impotence. Its physical structures are crumbling under constant battering for several decades, in conditions that fail to satisfy current levels of service. The perception of being the most prosperous nation on earth is largely due to its consumerist extravagance that has resulted in enormous budget deficits and staggering debts globally; but the state of disrepair and hazards of its infrastructure leaves an image of a backward country that is mired in third world impasse'.

The country's 60,000 bridges are in doubtful condition, where a survey revealed 33% of all urban bridges to be structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The country's water highways - the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and a dozen other tributaries where bulk cargoes of grains, coal, and other commodities are moved to booming global markets, pass through locks built more than 70 years ago - and are on the verge of falling apart. The invisible infrastructure of pipes buried underneath, that bring fresh water and takes away dirty water are decrepit, leaking, and overflowing. There are regions where the pipe systems were built 50 to 100 years ago. America's railway systems are way behind compared with Singapore, Korea and Japan. Of the 79,000 dams in the US, more than 10,000 are considered to have a high hazard risk of failure. The development of America's communities and regions are stymied by disconnected road networks, interstate highways and expressways; which are also inadequate in handling current capacity and a growing population.

The danger levels of the country's collapsing physical networks have been signaled by events as the trapped miners in Utah, smashed levees in New Orleans, busted steam pipes and flooded subways in New York City, a collapsed bridge in Minnesota, flooding in Iowa, to name a few. The American Society of Engineers estimates that bringing the nation's transportation and resources network to merely functional level would require $1.6 trillion and five years of construction. Yet, this would not accommodate the growth in the number of users in the coming years. The decay in the country's infrastructure and its long term effects on the US economy, and on its very competitiveness, is not lost on the politicians; and they have sounded the alarm on a situation that resulted from their own conceited neglect and overwhelming incompetence at harnessing a visionary method of development.

The patchwork approach to sustainable infrastructure has not passed filling potholes, removing debris, and other temporary, short term remedies. There is no national vision of how to upgrade and advance America's infrastructure. Money allocated by Congress goes to pet projects of the congressmen to win favor and popularity with their constituents, without looking out for long term impacts of a decaying infrastructure backbone. Money allocated for maintenance are diverted to other capital projects because photo ops and ribbon cutting of new structures will get front page coverage in the local papers, while maintenance work hardly merits a mention except for a lone unread billboard at the site.

Global environmental conditions will make matters worse, but even this phenomenon is being debated by those who disbelieve in its presence. The stubborn desire to deny lifestyle change prevails and its messengers crucified at every turn. And America continues to spend billions on wars in 2 fronts; wars that are costly to continue and where victory is difficult to define. If the country cannot have a vision for infrastructure development that would benefit itself and its own people, how can it possibly be credible to have a vision for other countries and their respective peoples? What pride is there in believing that yours is the most prosperous nation on the planet when that very prosperity is financed by debts from other countries? What is the point of boasting about creating advanced technologies when other countries lead the way in its applications, profits, and use, while your own people cannot even be adequately benefited by a simple broadband interconnection?

Yet it remains stuck in political debates, arguing who could best lead the country out of its sorry predicament. But the arguments are not really based on competence nor capability, but on race and partisanship; not on what's good for the country, but what is best for my party; not on victory for the nation, but triumph for my political spectrum. The election is an exercise for blind followers, deaf speech makers, and brain washed supporters who have all refused the truth, and who each create a lie they can rally to.

It has been 8 continuous years of decline, and decades of indifference. It may not stand any longer.

Harrrrwwwwk...Twoooooooph...Ting!