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The Infrastructure Crisis
| Article
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18678 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1991 |
511 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
The robber barons who built the railroads that linked the United States made possible the huge industrial democracy that produced abundance. Now we cannot drive very far without ruining our tires on potholes or crossing decrepit bridges. Our national house is falling to pieces. And this is both costly and dangerous. The infrastructure crisis is the subject of the special symposium in this issue of THE WORLD & I.
A dollar spent on infrastructure, by common agreement, has a multiplier effect of four times on the economy. The failure to maintain, let alone improve, America's roads, bridges, dams, and tracks has a huge destructive effect on the economy. Infrastructure, like education, is a capital expense. Yet our national bookkeeping treats it like other ordinary expenditures such as wages or raw materials. Thus, given the budget problems of our national and state governments, infrastructural, that is, capital, maintenance and improvement is postponed indefinitely, increasing costs elsewhere in the economy.
Although infrastructure, properly considered, is a capital and not an ordinary expenditure, I do not suggest that the government necessarily should pay for it. Government projects are not subject to the harsh verdict of the marketplace and, in addition, invite graft and other forms of corruption.
Perhaps much of the infrastructural work necessary in the United States should be privatized on the basis of bids by contractors who would have the right to charge agreed-upon fees for use or access. These contracts should include requirements for continued maintenance, with failures to meet agreed-upon standards, other than those stemming from acts to God, requiring still additional maintenance by the contractor without the right to increase fees.
It also would be important to make fees dependent upon impact of use. It is well known that truckers cause damage to our roadways that far exceeds the fees charged to them and that this distorts economic decision making, with consequent damage to the economy.
Although privatization may not work for all infrastructural needs, it would have interesting consequences. Much of the gasoline tax that is now collected would be unneeded for roadway building and maintenance. Because gasoline taxes deter use and contribute to conservation, it might not be desirable to reduce these taxes. But they could be used for
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