| > Federal expansion programs are not sustainable. Is the federal government sustainable? How many employees is enough? Have we already passed that? Would it be better if we privatized the road crews? > [Programs] ... They can help, but ultimately you need the private sector to create jobs by selling goods and services. Well, you do need to create value as opposed to just shuffling it around. But creating roads is enabling much of that private sector earning. Couldn't we imagine this with a minimalist government and a network of private toll-roads that collected the same or greater "tax" on the local businesses? How does the private aspect help? > At the end of that 6 years, construction moves on. Money goes to another state, or another part of the state outside of a commute. What do you do then? I imagine they'd total up the road length across the state, divide by maximum lifespan, and hire enough people to fix every mile by the time it would fall apart. Yes, in a big state you're unlikely to circulate the same people from corner to corner, but thankfully roads tend to be found in close proximity to people, so I imagine the road crews could all be kept busy (for the most part) around where they each live. We already do this - my city employs full-time construction people forever. The only decision would be to hire more, and how many is too many. But if we aren't fixing each bit of road by the time it falls apart (and we are not) then we know we don't have enough. |