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Comment by ericlewis | Hacker News Reader

I’m curious what aging infrastructure you’re referring to.

Where I live, things are very nice and it’s maybe fairly unique to my exact county.

But if you are referring to overall infra like highways or something- I don’t share the sentiment it’s in anyway a problem where we live.

Im not plugged into interstate trade or things like that. So maybe I’m not totally aware of the problem. But it hasn’t seemed locally problematic.

Edit: downvote, really? I’m trying to know more about crumbling infrastructure.

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There's a ton of literature out there on America's infrastructure problems.

This is a good summary from a neutral source: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure

These studies aren't nearly as dire as the grandparent comment that claimed the United States wouldn't be part of the developed world in 20 years.

Much of that report focuses on things like traffic congestion and delayed flights from busy airports:

> According to Petroski, the delays caused by traffic congestion alone cost the economy over $120 billion per year.

Ironically, the abrupt shift to remote work and work-from-home due to COVID has significantly reduced traffic burdens in many cities.

I'm all for improving infrastructure where necessary, such as the ~10% of bridges that are structurally deficient or improving access to cheap broadband. I'm not enthusiastic about rallying cries to encourage more car traffic, though.

Didn't downvote you, but its a pretty well known issue https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/...

tl;dr the USA earns a D- in infra.

I've driven cross country a bunch of times. I'd give the roads a lot better than a D. I have to wonder if this institute is biased in some way.

That’s like your broker saying your investment strategy is D- because you don’t have enough money in his firms managed funds.

The D- is a bogus rating meant to increase spending, not improve value.

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/12/12/best-of-blog-...

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/03/20/is-the-asce-failing-t...

One of your sources is a decade older than the link, and the other is quoting a guy critiquing their methodology but "Marohn said he could be convinced that more spending is justified, but not before he sees a smarter analysis based on the return communities get on their investment."

You probably could find better ones without much effort, as I also didnt use a ton to find mine in the first place - I was just referring to a document that was pulled up when the bridge collapsed in my home town.

If you want to quibble about specifics sure, but that's different than the parent's "I dont know what the conversation is about"

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