tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post83390438188174729..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: A Personal Observation On Trump's "Infrastructure Week"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-53553079732222546052017-06-13T15:33:17.651-04:002017-06-13T15:33:17.651-04:00Sewers are the foundation of civilization. There ...Sewers are the foundation of civilization. There has not been much talk about them in the current debates over infrastructure, but we clearly need a lot of investment in water systems, with the situation in Flint, MI only the tip of the iceberg. There has apparently been a serious decline in water quality in quite a few US communities.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-77239755176559013502017-06-12T20:36:59.357-04:002017-06-12T20:36:59.357-04:00Yes, but what about all the sewer systems??? Think...Yes, but what about all the sewer systems??? Think Miami.....<br />Eubulideshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00631527929485341690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-29282286472901020692017-06-10T18:36:17.219-04:002017-06-10T18:36:17.219-04:00ASCE says we need $4.6 trillion in infrastructure ...ASCE says we need $4.6 trillion in infrastructure investment over the decade. That is $460 billion per year which for a $19 trillion economy represents 2.4% of GDP. Doable if we want to but maybe we should forego Trump's tax cuts for the rich and actually raise their taxes. It would speed up their travels to work after all. ProGrowthLiberalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17138489390594441753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-17909705656977009412017-06-10T11:53:04.854-04:002017-06-10T11:53:04.854-04:00pgl,
Bringing it up to date, the two major privat...pgl,<br /><br />Bringing it up to date, the two major private toll roads that I know of are the Indiana toll road (I90), privatized a few years ago, and the Greenway in Northern VA that runs from Dulles Airport to Leesburg. I have not ridden on the Indiana toll road for a few years, but I recently saw someone on the internet saying that it is not being maintained well, and that the rest areas are just an awful mess.<br /><br />The Greenway is a road that was privately built like the VA turnpikes. It charges very high toll rates and has little traffic. Apparently there is a setup that at some point it will revert to state ownership, although apparently the date of that has been extended. I have only ridden on it once, and it was in good shape, but then, it has very little traffic, which was the case when I rode on it. So, somehow either the privateers will charge very high tolls or they will not do decent maintenance, at least that seems to be what is going on in these two cases.bbrosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-20954831316965051412017-06-10T05:22:12.838-04:002017-06-10T05:22:12.838-04:00"The private sector just did not do all that ..."The private sector just did not do all that good of a job running them."<br /><br />Mark Thoma a few years ago featured some of the excellent discussions of how selling toll roads to the private sector was often done at prices well below the present value of the future tolls - which is one of the things I fear about the Trump privatization plans.<br /><br />His most infamous troll - Patrick R. Sullivan - posted a ton of comments trying to justify these give aways. One of the claims was that private companies would run highways more efficiently. These claims it seems were never backed up with any actual research.ProGrowthLiberalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17138489390594441753noreply@blogger.com