The Great Investment Gap

[BeaverFever]

“Everything is Broken” is the new conservative mantra as if it all just broke recently instead of being the predicted result of neoliberalism which intentionally brought decades of neglect of public and social infrastructure and of the defacto rule by business elites. It was championed by conservatives but became the national religion and was dutifully carried out by both political parties. 
 

The following is about the US but applies to Canada also 
 

Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives

Oct. 19, 2023, 6:46 a.m. ET

A great American investment slump.

 

Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives

Oct. 19, 2023, 6:46 a.m. ET

A great American investment slump.

 

The lounge on a Pan Am Boeing 707 in 1958. Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images

The next time you take a trip within the U.S., I encourage you to try a thought experiment: Imagine how long the same trip might have taken a half-century ago. Chances are, it would have taken less time than it does today.

The scheduled flight time between Los Angeles and New York, for example, has become about 30 minutes longer. Aviation technology has not advanced in ways that speed the trip, and the skies have become so crowded that pilots reroute planes to avoid traffic. Nearly every other part of the trip also lasts longer than it would have a few decades ago, thanks to traffic on the roads and airport security. All told, a cross-country trip could take a few more hours today than it would have in the 1970s.

Shorter trips also take more time. Auto traffic in almost every metro area has worsened, and the country has done little to improve its rail network. In 1969, Metroliner trains made two-and-a-half-hour, nonstop trips between Washington and New York. Today, there are no nonstop trains on that route, and the fastest trip, on Acela trains, takes about 20 minutes longer than the Metroliner once did.

The speed at which people can get from one place to another is one of the most basic measures of a society’s sophistication. It affects economic productivity and human happiness; academic research has found that commuting makes people more unhappythan almost any other daily activity. Yet in one area of U.S. travel after another, progress has largely stopped over the past half-century.

This lack of recent progress is not a result of any physical or technological limits, either. In other parts of the world, travel has continued to accelerate. Shanghai’s airport is almost 20 miles from its city center, and the trip on a high-speed train takes less than 10 minutes. La Guardia Airport and Times Square are significantly closer together — yet good luck making the trip in less than 30 minutes.

Why is it more difficult to get around the U.S.? Above all, it’s because our society has stopped investing in the future as we once did.

For decades, government investment in highways, mass transit, scientific research, education and other future-oriented programs has grown more slowly than it once did — and has often failed to keep pace with economic growth. And the private sector tends to underinvest in these same areas because any individual company has a hard time making a profit from early-stage investments.

Share of G.D.P. Spent on Federal Research and Development

This shortfall of investment affects far more than travel. It affects economic growth, public health and both racial and gender inequities. The long American investment slump is one of the causes of our modern malaise, with rising income inequality, declining life expectancy, and deep frustration about the economy even when it’s growing.

I explain the connection in a new Times Magazine article that goes into much more detail about the investment slump. The article also explains why there are some signs — albeit early ones — that the U.S. is rethinking its recent approach.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/briefing/america-infrastructure-investment.html

[Michael Hardner]

Here's your closer:

 

Quote

Whatever happens, the stakes should be clear by now. A government that does not devote sufficient resources to the future will produce a society that is ultimately less prosperous, less innovative, less healthy and less mobile than it could be. The citizens of such a society will grow frustrated, and with good reason.

 

[Michael Hardner]

Basically - Republicans are cheap and would rather take a tax cut and buy a pool to make the 2nd wife happy and all Americans accept the results as balanced as the money rolls uphill and collects at the tippy top of the anthill. 

Although I did't see it mentioned: The Liberals are basically ok with it, because they want to fight about identity politics I guess.

More interesting to me is how the language of Marxism is being slowly adopted by the Chuds - most notably the use of the term "Elites".  At one point they may actually wake up and discover that their Buddha Trump was born into wealth and lived in a system that facilitated the continued success of stupid wealth ....

We shall see as they say...