From the Horse's Mouth

Six years ago, our current president Obama was talking about rebuilding our national infrastructure.  Of course, after 2 pointless $1 trillion + wars we are sitting on an infrastructure that is essentially six years older with little to show for improvement.  So Vice President Biden's quote about LaGuardia Airport in NY is kind of ironic.  I mean it is his administration that ran on the premise they would increase investment in the nations infrastructure.

Here is the quote:

"If I...blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia airport in New York, you'd think, 'I must be in some third world country."'

Why on earth does this obvious statement get so much attention?  My latest trending thought process goes something like this:  "America is in a great big state of denial." That this Biden Quote gets any attention at all by the mainstream press is proof of this.  I can see some of the regular folks who have been harping on the decline of America to a 2nd world status jumping on this statement and saying, "See, finally someone who runs the country is starting to understand how bad it is." or whatever.

But for mainstream media?  I mean aren't these folks people who travel regularly?  Don't they go to European and Japanese, Korean airports and even Middle Eastern airports that represent what can be  built in a developed environment?  Is it not painfully obvious that the miles of "drywall" that fills the interior of "public" spaces in the US and the extremely poor workmanship, lack of energy efficiency, lack of technology in nearly every facet and a general feeling of inhumanity is everywhere?  There are exceptions as the US rebuilds it's urban infrastructure after 4 decades of urban decline (in select cities) but for the most part we are still decades behind in our infrastructure upgrades. 

The FT article that discusses the US infrastructure issue also quotes from ASCE:

The US would need to invest $3.6tn to return its infrastructure – including energy, parks, schools and transport – to a state of good repair by 2020, according to estimates last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Then they go about discussing all these stupid ways various cities are going about raising extra money JUST TO KEEP UP WITH MAINTENANCE of the existing infrastructure.  Well, funny the $3.6 trillion is just about the cost of the two pointless wars (with interest, long term care of the solders etc.).  This nation has plenty of money to take care of all it's issues but it has a tax system the favors the rich and upper middle class so extremely they keep getting richer and richer while everything falls apart outside of their isolated little burroughs where their exceptional tax base supports the perception in their environment that everything is just fine. 

So while 50% plus of children drop out of high school in many top urban areas in the US and while the nations infrastructure, manufacturing base and wages go into a free fall, while the average weight, income disparity and per-capita energy use continues to increase, Americans are just plain "in a state of denial" about nearly every reality around them.

So this is my latest rant and thinking.  As many people who know me know, my ideas and trend thoughts shift every 6 months to year.  Moving to the 2nd world has been around for a while, living in a state of denial is the latest reality...  Hope to contribute a bit more going forward.

By the way, it looks like I will be pursuing my Master's in Econ this year going forward, so stay tuned for some interesting reads!