Infrastructure Madness

From Jack Shafer at Slate: “Infrastructure MadnessDon’t believe everything you read about the failing bridges and antiquated waterworks.”

As Tom G. Palmer wrote in the February 1983 Inquiry magazine (disclosure: I worked there), “it is no accident that while the rhetoric is repair, the reality is new construction.” He continues:

Highway-improvement politics differs little from military hardware procurement. Rather than keeping old systems in good repair, money flows into flashy new structures where millions can be lavished on consultants, research, and planning.

Big construction projects deliver political rewards, not well-executed maintenance projects, Palmer holds. “Nobody ever held a ribbon cutting-ceremony for the painting of a bridge,” he observes this week.

My essay on “Infrastructure: Public or Private” will be republished in June in my book Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice.

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