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by adam_arthur
1683 days ago
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I'm definitely personally on the more hawkish side, re inflation. But this bill may help reduce longer term inflation if it's actually spent wisely. e.g. if port throughput/efficiency increases, we could process imports more cheaply. I'm not an expert on the bill, but the skew in the numbers seem a bit strange. Personally I think the cost should have been weighted much more heavily towards logistics/energy aspect of infrastructure, rather than repairs. I'll have to read the fine print, but the money for "bridges" seems kind of wasteful unless they're actually building net new bridges. Are the bridges in poor condition actually on the verge of structurally failing? Or just older but serviceable. E.g. a second bridge connecting VA and MD over the Potomac would be pretty awesome, and greatly alleviate congestion. |
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Precisely.
A spending bill is like any other kind of investment: for it to pay back, it has to be made carefully and thoughtfully, and must be watched over like milk on fire until it actually bears fruit.
That's what the private sector and private capital does best, because in that space, failure spells death.
For a govt, failure means nothing - to quote PT barnum - there's a sucker (or taxpayer in that case) born every minute. All you have to do is survive the next election cycle, and doing that these days has pretty much nothing to do with how well you actually invest taxpayer dollars and everything to do with how good a PR firm you hire.
Sadly, the US govt (like most govts) are neither good at investing nor at babysitting their investments: they are one of the most wasteful human organization on the planet, both unwittingly (bureaucracy and thousands of federal employees who serve no actual purpose whatsoever) and willingly (corruption and pork).
The trillion dollar that is being spent in this bill will neither improve the infrastructure of the country, nor go to the pockets of people who need it to help them lift themselves out of poverty.
It will just be wasted, like most of the rest of your tax money.
Oh, and - minor detail - it's a trillion dollar the government doesn't have.
It is therefore going to take on additional debt.
But, I mean, at this point who's counting anymore?
https://www.usdebtclock.org/