Third World America - Arianna Huffington [35]
Or from a Third World nation.
But despite the desperate state of affairs, America remains in denial. According to the ASCE, we would need to invest $2.2 trillion over the next five years just to bring our existing infrastructure up to a passable level (let alone a level appropriate for the twenty-first century).5 But we’ve only budgeted $975 billion for that period.6
America is like a middle-aged man, still clinging to a perception of himself at age twenty-three, refusing to take in the wrinkles and the bald spot showing up in the mirror. And the bad knee. And the clogged arteries that could make his heart stop beating at any moment. We still see ourselves as a youthful nation, when it simply isn’t true anymore. But unless we snap out of it and grow up enough to look reality in its sagging face, we are in for a world of trouble.
The fact is, America’s antiquated infrastructure is desperately in need of an extreme makeover.
THE FLINTSTONES VERSUS THE JETSONS
Our infrastructure problems are so extensive, you don’t have to look far to encounter them. Flip on a light switch, and you are tapping into a seriously overtaxed electrical grid. Go to the sink, and your tap water may be coming to you through pipes built during the Civil War. Take a drive, and pass over pothole-filled roads and cross-if-you-dare bridges. The evidence of decay is all around us.
But while the present state of disrepair is disturbing, looking down the crumbling, congested, traffic-clogged road at what lies ahead for us is chilling. America’s population is expected to reach 438 million by 2050—a 48 percent increase since 2005.7 But instead of preparing for this growth and the attendant demands it will make on our run-down systems, America is nickel-and-diming its way into the future.
We invest just 2.4 percent of gross domestic product in infrastructure, compared with 5 percent in Europe and 9 percent in China—a surefire way to ensure that we will not be leading the twenty-first century.8 While we try to hold the American jalopy together with duct tape, chewing gum, some wire, and a prayer, China is busy building the most up-to-date, bells-and-whistles infrastructure money can buy, dramatically increasing that country’s mobility.9
For example, from 2006 through 2009, China spent $186 billion on its railways alone—which World Bank officials have described as “the biggest expansion of railway capacity undertaken by any country since the nineteenth century.”10, 11 And by 2020 China plans to construct 26,000 additional miles of track.12 It’s making a similar commitment to other modes of transportation. In 2009 China built over 230,000 miles of roads and announced plans to build ninety-seven airports by 2020.13, 14
In a column headlined “Time to Reboot America,” New York Times columnist and author Tom Friedman recounted flying from Hong Kong’s “ultramodern airport” (following a ride on a high-speed train with top-of-the-line wireless connectivity) to New York’s JFK airport and compared it to “going from the Jetsons to the Flintstones.”15 The experience left him wondering: “If we’re so smart, why are other people living so much better than us?”
And it’s not just Asia. Armando Carbonell, chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, says that while “the European Union is working across national boundaries to integrate the continent,” in America “there’s been at least a fifty-year gap in national planning for comprehensive infrastructure across water systems, energy systems and transportation.”16
This is about a lot more than just fixing potholes or getting from place to place faster. It’s about keeping America competitive and keeping its people healthy and productive.
Felix Rohatyn, author of Bold Endeavors: How Our Government Built America, and Why It Must Rebuild Now, serves up the bracing bottom line: “The aging of our