Time to build a better America

The Columbian published an editorial last Sunday (May 29th) titled “Time to build a better America”.  Predicting doom and gloom if America does not upgrade its crumbling infrastructure, Ann McFeatters argues that our nation will lose its edge in the future.  She writes:

America’s crumbling, outmoded infrastructure has become one of those political discussions that make eyes glaze over and knuckles turn white with boredom.  But it will prove as vital as America’s dependence on foreign oil in its potential to doom our economic superiority.

The results are everywhere.  Spring rains after winter’s storms create enormous potholes.  Devastating floods and droughts are catastrophic.  Traffic jams reduce productivity by millions of hours…

At first blush, it is difficult to argue with her.  Obviously, if we are going to have an infrastructure at all, it needs to be maintained and upgraded periodically.  She rightly points out that the United States has spent money on war, defense and entitlements that is should have spent on its basic needs.  But, instead of urging for cuts in bloated, unconstitutional, spending, she argues that what we need is – more spending…

If we do not act, which looks likely because of the determination in Washington to cut spending – Congress consistently refuses to pas a surface transportation planning act, this is what will happen:

Americans will spend an ever-greater portion of their incomes on services such as tap water, some of which will be undrinkable.  There will be new tolls on highway driving…

Some cash-strapped cities will simply stop providing basic services, letting private companies take them over.  Road maintenance in rural areas will become problematic…

The doomsday scenario she describes sounds a lot like a third-world nation in the making.  But perhaps the most important contributor to the problem is mentioned in the last paragraph.  Well… she doesn’t actually come out and say it, but she does conclude by admitting this:

In 30 years, there will be almost 100 million more people living in the United States, but the infrastructure will not support 400 million Americans.

Gosh, where do all those people come from?  It could be that she actually spelled it out in her original draft – but the Columbian’s editors PC’ed it down in order to avoid offending anybody.  The problem is immigration.  If not for post-1965 immigrants and their children, it is very likely that the measures she calls for would be very affordable.

But there is another elephant in the room and this one she could never write about – because she is almost certainly ignorant about it:  In a series of detailed articles, Hunter Wallace has spelled out, in Occidental Dissent, the tremendous costs of both welfare (including EBT) and crime.  Both represent enormous transfers of wealth from (mostly) white taxpayers to the parasitic black and Hispanic underclass.  Wallace points out that, were these expenses to be eliminated, the savings would be more than enough to send astronauts to Mars.  Repairing and updating our infrastructure would be a minor expense compared to the costs of black/Hispanic welfare and crime.  I would venture to say that “Affirmative Action” and “ESL” programs each cost as much, or more, than such updates would cost.  Obviously, Wallace is much better at numbers than I am so I’ll leave the crunching to him.