Minneapolis - Harbinger of Things To Come?
Truthout has a good posting here with some articles regarding this tragic event and some of its potentially likely underlining causes. This includes a provocative and well-reasoned analysis from AlterNet regarding why this tragedy is the result of conservative ideology…
The tragic collapse this week of a stretch of I-35 spanning the Mississippi river in Minnesota was shocking but should come as no surprise. America’s core infrastrucure has been falling apart in very visible ways during the past few years. It’s a predictable outcome of the rise of “backlash” conservatism; we’ve swallowed 30 years of small-government rhetoric, and it’s led us to a point in which our infrastructure, once the pride of the developed world, is falling apart around us. We’re reaping what we’ve sown.
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One of the primary reasons for that is that there aren’t organized constituents lobbying for public goods like highways and bridges - people take those things for granted. A thousand grifters have gained office promising to cut taxes as if they existed in a vacuum, without mentioning the cost; no politician has ever won office promising to keep highways from collapsing on their constituents. For 30 years, we’ve been told by a series of right-wing snake-oil salesmen that they could deliver more and better public services while constantly cutting the taxes that pay for them, but it was always a fraud. The result is that the United States enjoys the third-lowest tax burden among the 30 most advanced economies as its public spaces gradually come apart at the seams.
I would argue that skimping out on infrastructure investments in the name of a low tax burden is a triumph of ideology over commonsense, but it goes beyond that. Conservative philosophy stresses limited government, not bad government, and nothing can change the fact that the public sector remains the only way to organize collectively when there’s no profit involved. So nobody seriously believes that the the hidden hand of capitalism is going to step in and inspect and repair bridges that are open to the public. When lawmakers don’t fund that work, they know full well that it won’t get done.
Some colleagues of mine posted some insightful comments on this incident as well.
I think we are beginning to see the tip of the iceberg.
Nationwide we appear to be falling further and further behind with infrastructure maintenance. A recent example was the steam line rupture in New York City. There are plenty of other things — billions of dollars worth of water lines - some in excess of 100 years old - needing replacement. Yet governments don’t want to spend the necessary money to correct these deficiencies because it isn’t the “political thing to do.” Hey, can’t raise taxes or rates. Leave it for the next guy.
I’m at 33 years of local government service, and I don’t like what I see. Frustrating is putting it mildly.
It’s going to become a very real problem for all of us.
Unfortunately, I believe this individual is completely correct here. As our nation continues to more and more resemble the former USSR and authoritarian east bloc nations in the political sphere, that resemblance will begin to manifest itself in the realm of our physical infrastructure as well.
Another, from the Twin Cities, posted this…
I’m also nauseated and angry over reports this morning that our state administration was told in 2001, 2005 and 2006 that the bridge was structurally deficient, and was prone to single fatigue. Our governor this morning is assuring me and other citizens that 179,000 other bridges in the country have the same designation, so there’s nothing to worry about. It’s not the time to go on a political rant, but I know a lot of other people are shocked and angry. As I look at the devastation from one bridge collapse here, it’s hard for me not to think about our brothers and sisters in New Orleans who still haven’t recovered from Katrina in 2005. We have a lot of work to do.
Yes, we do.
E-Democracy.Org has put up a wiki to highlight news, videos, photos and more about the I-35W bridge collapse here. Interesting stuff, and an interesting use of citizen-driven information platforms to better communicate news and information.
