WE PISS TRILLIONS AWAY OVERSEAS WHILE OUR INFRASTRUCTURE CRUMBLES

The http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/ with another fine list of things to depress you. Here is the missing piece. I hear various jackass pundits like Larry Summers declare that what this nation needs is a massive Keynesian Federal Infrastructure Program to repair our infrastructure and generate jobs. It’s a crock of shit. The Federal government, state governments, county governments, and municipal governments create budgets every fucking year and have been creating them for over 200 years. Expenditures for capital and infrastructure projects have been in these budgets every year. So why is our infrastructure crumbling?

It’s because these politicians and government bureaucrats have CHOSEN to spend YOUR money on gold plated public union contracts, beautiful new municipal buildings, bridges to nowhere, social welfare programs, food stamps, SSDI for depressed people, corporate tax breaks, solar energy subsidies, ethanol subsidies, and the biggest of them all – handing hundreds of billions to dictators we prop up throughout the world, three trillion dollars fighting wars in the Middle East, and spending $900 billion per year policing the world.

We spent billions blowing up Iraqi infrastructure, then spent billions more rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure that we had blown up, while our own infrastructure crumbles by the day.

Well it’s too fucking late people. The fucking money is gone. We can’t afford a massive Keynesian infrastructure program. The money is already committed to Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, and the Military Industrial Complex. So Solly. 

 

21 Facts About America’s Decaying Infrastructure That Will Blow Your Mind

 
You can tell a lot about a nation by the condition of the infrastructure.  So what does our infrastructure say about us?  It says that we are in a very advanced state of decay.  At this point, much of America is being held together with spit, duct tape and prayers.  Our roads are crumbling and thousands of our bridges look like they could collapse at any moment.  Our power grid is ancient and over a trillion gallons of untreated sewage is leaking from our aging sewer systems each year.  Our airports and our seaports are clogged with far more traffic than they were ever designed to carry.  Approximately a third of all of the dam failures that have taken place in the United States since 1874 have happened during the past decade.  Our national parks and recreation areas have been terribly neglected and our railroads are a bad joke.  Hurricane Katrina showed how vulnerable our levees are, and drinking water systems all over the country are badly outdated.  Sadly, at a time when we could use significant new investment in infrastructure, our spending on infrastructure is actually way down.  Back during the 50s and the 60s, the U.S. was spending between 3 and 4 percent of GDP on infrastructure.  Today, that figure is down to about 2.4 percent.  But of course we don’t have any extra money to spend on infrastructure because of our reckless spending and because of the massive amount of debt that we have accumulated.  While the Obama administration is spending more than half a million dollars to figure out why chimpanzees throw poop, our national infrastructure is literally falling apart all around us.  Once upon a time nobody else on the planet could match our infrastructure, and now we are in the process of becoming a joke to the rest of the world.

The following are 21 facts about America’s failing infrastructure that will blow your mind….

#1 The American Society of Civil Engineers has given America’s crumbling infrastructure an overall grade of D.

#2 There are simply not enough roads in the United States today.  Each year, traffic jams cost the commuters of America 4.2 billion hours and about 2.8 million gallons of gasoline.

#3 It is being projected that Americans will spend an average of 160 hours stuck in traffic annually by the year 2035.

#4 Approximately one-third of all roads in the United States are in substandard condition.

#5 Close to a third of all highway fatalities are due “to substandard road conditions, obsolete road designs, or roadside hazards.”

#6 One out of every four bridges in America either carries more traffic than originally intended or is in need of repair.

#7 Repairing all of the bridges in the United States that need repair would take approximately 140 billion dollars.

#8 According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, our decaying transportation system costs the U.S. economy about 78 billion dollars annually in lost time and fuel.

#9 All over America, asphalt roads are being ground up and are being replaced with gravel roads because they are cheaper to maintain.  The state of South Dakota has transformed over 100 miles of asphalt roads into gravel roads, and 38 out of the 83 counties in the state of Michigan have transformed at least some of their asphalt roads into gravel roads.

#10 There are 4,095 dams in the United States that are at risk of failure.  That number has risen by more than 100 percent since 1999.

#11 Of all the dam failures that have happened in the United States since 1874, a third of them have happened during the past decade.

#12 Close to half of all U.S. households do not have access to bus or rail transit.

#13 Our aging sewer systems spill more than a trillion gallons of untreated sewage every single year.  The cost of cleaning up that sewage each year is estimated to be greater than 50 billion dollars.

#14 It is estimated that rolling blackouts and inefficiencies in the U.S. electrical grid cost the U.S. economy approximately 80 billion dollars a year.

#15 It is being projected that by the year 2020 every single major container port in the United States will be handling at least double the volume that it was originally designed to handle.

#16 All across the United States, conditions at many of our state parks, recreation areas and historic sites are deplorable at best.  Some states have backlogs of repair projects that are now over a billion dollars long….

More than a dozen states estimate that their backlogs are at least $100 million. Massachusetts and New York’s are at least $1 billion. Hawaii officials called park conditions “deplorable” in a December report asking for $50 million per year for five years to tackle a $240 million backlog that covers parks, trails and harbors.

#17 Today, the U.S. spends about 2.4 percent of GDP on infrastructure.  Meanwhile, China spends about 9 percent of GDP on infrastructure.

#18 In the United States today, approximately 16 percent of our construction workers are unemployed.

#19 China has plans to build 55,000 miles of highways by the year 2020.  If all of those roads were put end to end, it would be longer than the total length of the entire U.S. interstate system.

#20 The World Economic Forum ranks U.S. infrastructure 23rd in the world, and we fall a little bit farther behind the rest of the developed world every single day.

#21 It has been projected that it would take 2.2 trillion dollars over the next 5 years just to repair our existing infrastructure.  That does not even include a single penny for badly needed new infrastructure.

So where did we go wrong?

Well, one of the big problems is that we have become a very materialistic society that is obsessed with short-term thinking.  Investing in infrastructure is something that has long-term benefits, but these days Americans tend to only be focused on what is happening right now and most politicians are only focused on the next election cycle.

Another major problem is that there is so much corruption and waste in our system these days.  The government certainly spends more than enough money, but very little of that money is spent wisely.  A lot of the money that could be going toward rebuilding our infrastructure is being poured down the toilet instead.  For much more on this, please read my previous article entitled “16 Sickening Facts That Show How Members Of Congress And Federal Workers Are Living The High Life At Your Expense“.

Unfortunately, it is probably appropriate that our infrastructure is decaying because we are decaying in just about every other way that it is possible for a society to decay.

We are decaying economically, politically, mentally, emotionally, physically, morally and spiritually.

We are a complete and total mess.  So why shouldn’t what is happening to our infrastructure on the outside match what is happening to us as a nation on the inside?

And sadly, we simply do not have the money that we need for infrastructure because of all the debt that we have piled up.  The federal government, our state governments and our local governments are all struggling to stay afloat in an ocean of red ink, and unfortunately that means that spending on infrastructure is likely to be cut even more in the years ahead.

So get used to rotting, crumbling, decaying infrastructure.  What you see out there right now is only just the beginning.

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Chronic Agitator
Chronic Agitator

If there is so little fuel to suck out of the earth and when it’s available it is expensive and with the economy supposedly permanently going into the shitter, please tell me why you think we need to spend bushels of money on highways and bridges.

Screech
Screech

The best investment you can make for the future will be in Band-Aids. Band-Aids for infrastructure repair that is. Because that’s all you are going to get for fixes.

For an interesting read on just how complcated our infrastruture is I suggest Scott Huler’s book titled On The Grid. Huler details the systems that keep one mid-sized city, Raleigh, NC, humming along. ONE city!

Yep. It’s all Band-Aids from here forward.

And, by the way, fuck Larry Summers.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

We are decaying mentally, morally and spiritually inside and that is showing up outside as our economic, political, and physical decay.

For those that are old enough to remember, think about how exciting it was to see the interstate roadway system being built and all the development taking place around it and us. Now we are seeing this same infrastructure rotting in front of our eyes.

What has changed?

Us!

We no longer live and work in natural reality. We now live in the virtual reality created by the computer and television. We have forgotten about our physical reality; about using our mind to create. Software programs create for us. We no longer think for ourselves. We let our over sized government think for us. We have put ourselves into a stuffy box where we are unconsciously plotting our own extinction. The evidence is all around us that we are dying and yet we seem to be stuck in a nightmare dream where we are struggling to wake up but can’t.

Our attention span has become very short. It is captured in the computer and television screen. Our attention identifies with everything except reality. Our opinions are formed; not from our own observations, but from what someone else has written or said. When someone points out the obvious around us, we stare back at them with a blank look, like a deer standing in the headlights of an approaching car, then when what is said is perceived as bad we go into fear; then denial.

Reality does not look good right now for America.

Who are we?

Could it be that we are the empty shells of our ancestors and forefathers that settled America? Could it be that we are the immigrants that came in after WW1 & 2 and took advantage of the conditions here that were conducive to creating individual wealth; now to just let the carcass die? Could it be that we are the immigrants that are presently pouring into this country illegally to eat the dying carcass of a once affluent America?

Which ever it is we are a dying empire just like all the preceding empires of the world that once started out as a country unified in it’s population; then allowed for “overwhelming immigration” to water down this unification and create divisions of all types.

America seems to have lost it’s soul in the urban areas that contain 75% of our population. Collectivism has replaced individualism in our urban cities. Arbitrary ordinances are created and code enforcers harass private property and business owners where these areas were once taboo for government to interfere.

The spirit of America has declined because the majority of people don’t carry it in their hearts anymore.

So, I ask again; WHO ARE WE? Why did we let this happen to our country? Why do we let our politicians piss away trillions of dollars while our national infrastructure suffers from decay and neglect? Why do we let our jobs be exported to indentured labor overseas? Why do we allow for public government unions with better than average pay and benefits that we can’t afford?

The sad part of all this, is that the change is coming about, not from an enemy coming in to forcefully overthrow our government and change our system; but from the pure neglect of our people to preserve what we have. We are allowing our own destruction. I don’t think this has ever happened in history before. Talk about people going to sleep.

Hello; is anyone in there?

Ron
Ron

Your crazy,ive traveled the country,our highway system is great,the people on it?
Spending money overseas,now that ive never understood.Just like we need more power production,not less.Just take some of that overseas spending and use it here.

Kill Bill
Kill Bill

here are simply not enough roads in the United States today. Each year, traffic jams cost the commuters of America 4.2 billion hours and about 2.8 million gallons of gasoline.

Amazing idnit?

A bunch of sheople will run off a cliff very quickly with no hesitation in an orderly fashion but can not drive down the highway without screwing it all up.

Stucky

Unfortunately, the USA has never been invaded by a foreign power. We need someone to bomb the living shit out of our cities and infrastructure …. like we did to Germany and Japan … so that we can rebuild everything nice, new, and shiney ….. like Germany and Japan did.

Also, the economiccollapse blogger EXAGGERATES the shit out of everything. Next week he’s doing an article, “57 reasons why termites will soon destroy every home in America”. Sheesh.

Stucky

I think we should rebuild our infrastructure to look fucked up right from the get go. That way, we’ll never ever have to rebuild it.

Like this building.
comment image

Wouldn’t a fuckin’ tunnel have been easier?
comment image

Kill Bill
Kill Bill

140 billion to fix our highways?

Pfftt. We are about to spend 500 billion to upgrade our 5k nukes.

Jimi d
Jimi d

ROME IS BURNING !

Kill Bill
Kill Bill

All flames lead to Rome

taxSlave
taxSlave

Where I live in Spring Mount PA, there are several bridges that have been out for several years.

BAck in 08 I wanted to put up a sign that said: “We can build Bridges in Iraq, why can’t we build them here?”

Fuck fuck fuck it all.

Cahuitabeachbound
Cahuitabeachbound

Stuck are those real pics? Where are they?

Llpoh
Llpoh

When I post about what needs to be done I mention infrastructure. He US has stopped spending money on things that create opportunity and have a payback, instead wastinging money on those things without a payback – the old story about feeding a man a fish or teaching him how to fish, where one is a direct loss and one is a direct benefit.

Hundreds ofbillions needs tobe spent on infrastructure every year, but it will not happen. The great projects of the past are dying and nothing is planned toreplace or augment them.

BTW – #2 above says 2.8 millions of gallons a year are wasted. I call bullshit, and a quick google said itis billions of gallons. Poor infrastructure is stopping the economy dead in its tracks – literally.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Stuck – you know zilch about road construction. A tunnel my ass. It would have the same type switchbacks otherwise it would have a gradient akin to jumping of a cliff. Plus ventilation issues, shoring issues, drainage issues, etc etc etc. Thanksfor playing, tho.

Unless you were being funny, in which case i laugh out loud at you superb use of sarcasm.

Stucky

llpoh

I propose they build the tunnel through the base of the mountain. I’m guessing there would be no need for switchbacks or gradient issues. But, you’re right, I don’t know jack shit about road construction.

Both pics are real, I’ve seen them before. I believe the skyscraper is in some Chinese city.

Llpoh.
Llpoh.

I gotta believe that is the Andes or similar. Drilling through the entire bottom of the Andes is not likely to be an option. Not to mention the need to meet up with villages along the way. Tunnels are gruesomely expensive and difficult. NY has been building a water tunnel for decades. It started in 1970, will complete maybe in 2020, Is 60 miles long and will cost more than 6 billion. It is miniscule compared to drilling a road through the Andes or a major mountain.

Stucky

llpoh

I appreciate what you’re saying.

The Swiss are building the world’s longest vehicle tunnel, 35 miles, through solid rock no one thought possible.

comment image

The 30 foot drilling head is amazing, as is the story in general.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11548845

Llpoh.
Llpoh.

Stuck – nice tunnel, 10 billion. Great feat of engineering. A car tunnel would be much more expensive – would have to be far, far wider. I estimate it would need to be 60 – 80 feet across for a two way tunnel. Plus the exhaust issues would need to be addressed, etc. an even more difficult feat it would be.

Llpoh.
Llpoh.

BTW, the article says eight have died so far building it. Do that in the Andes and hundreds would probably die. The Swiss are efficient bastards, but even they cannot prevent the deaths.

Stucky

Why 80 feet across? The Holland Tunnel (NJ to NY) is only 20 feet wide.

My dad used to drive us tp NYC in an old Rambler with no air-conditioning. The tunnel is less than 2 miles long. Drove with the windows partially down. I nearly passed out from the stinky fumes by the time we got to the other side.

glenn
glenn

The problem is and ALWAYS has been the Federal Reserve System, in our country. Since 1913 the illegal banking Cartel, has charged our citizens interest for printing our money. Besides charging the “interest” (total WASTE of money) they manipulate the economy to suit themselves. Their GREED has taken it’s toll. 98 Years and counting! No society could handle getting financially raped for so many years. NO COUNTRY!!! Then to add to the woes, putting poison in the drinking supply (FLUORIDE) to generate negative health. Sadly, “SATAN” worshiping has increased in popularity, and the “Protocols of Zion” continue…

Llpoh
Llpoh

In long tunnels you need to allow for three and maybe 4 lanes, minimum, to allow for issues related to breakdowns and crashes. Imagine a crash in a two lane tunnel 35 miles long. There would be no hope of rescue. So say 4 lanes to be safe, at a minimum if around 12 heet per lane. Plus probably need waling acces on the sides. So you are talking over fifty feet in that scenario. Three lane elliptical tunnels are Just over fifty feet wide, but two way traffic in a three lane tunnel would be problematic, so the option is probably 4, so over 65 feet wide would be a closer guess. Two lanes would be far too dangerous, and a crash could result in a severe loss of life.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Also, the holland tunnel is twenty feet roadway, two lanes in a single direction. Two tunnels required. Two direction tunnels are far more difficult and dangerous. So you either need one reallybig one or two smaller in the 25 feet or so category. The holland tunnel also has significant traffic restrictions esp regarding trucks.

Stucky

llpoh

Dang. Makes a lot of sense. Thanks.

G’night.

jimski
jimski

Fuck that road building bullshit. 1980 popular mechanics promised me a jetpack or flying car. Where is my damn jetpack or flying car? Did they decide to feed some family of 9 with no job with my jetpack money?

By the way we forgot a few zeros on the wasted fuel. Should be 2.8 bilion gallons of gas not million. No problem though as 42% of all internet facts are made up.

DaveL
DaveL

Admin says:”It’s because these politicians and government bureaucrats have CHOSEN to spend YOUR money on gold plated public union contracts, beautiful new municipal buildings, bridges to nowhere, social welfare programs, food stamps, SSDI for depressed people, corporate tax breaks, solar energy subsidies, ethanol subsidies, and the biggest of them all – handing hundreds of billions to dictators we prop up throughout the world, three trillion dollars fighting wars in the Middle East, and spending $900 billion per year policing the world.”

C’mon. All of the programs you listed above are things that are expressly provided for in our Constitution. Providing for the common defence and promoting the general welfare of the country by maintaining a proper transportation system of roads and bridges, or a proper distribution of energy and communication requirements, is not a function of our federal government.

Oh wait, I thought you were talking about the government of Zimbabwe.

DaveL
DaveL

Admin says:”The money is already committed to Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, and the Military Industrial Complex. So Solly.”

Yeah, and it is fully supported by the members of AARP.

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