Do you think Americans are complacent about the deterioration of vital infrastructure?

Question

According to the concept of "creeping normalcy", it is easy to overlook slow degredation of structures over time, if the change is gradual enough. Americans are very quick to point out any perceived threat to their social structure, pointing the finger at everything from homosexuals to unwed mothers to interracial marriage. Yet an outcry is never raised about very real, measurable deterioration of vital systems. According to the Dept. of Transportation, 34% of US roads are in severe disrepair, costing vehicle owners bilions of dollars in maintenace fees, among other things. 27% of US bridges are in disrepair. According to Consumer Reports, 40% of hospitals are understaffed. Etc., etc. Why do these issues continually fly under the radar? Investing $1 billion in infrastructure is estimated to create 42,000 skilled and unskilled worker positions, for example. Don't we want serviceable roads, and adequate health care? It just doesn't make sense to me. What do you think is the problem?

Fraginal- and we're ok with this? I mean, responsibility has to start somewhere, doesn't it??

Answer 1

Yes but there is a bigger picture... it is not that we just grew sponatenously complacent. We have been molded to be this way... to blame any other group...

This started in the 70s after the civil rights movement and the right decided society was in 'grave danger'. There was a set goal to convert all the judges, etc... to conservatism in order to reverse this.

Yet that was not the main threat... the real threat came with Karl Rove in the mid-70s. He has been working behind the scenes for over 30 years now manipulating our minds... playing the word game.

It would take me an hour to give you detail so let me just give you this Frontline link. Frontline practically every year wins the truth in journalism award btw.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/architect/view/

Answer 2

Every leader just wants to pass the buck. No major decision is ever viewed as a "good" decision by everyone. It is just easier for their careers to have pet projects like getting rid of teenage welfare mothers - which everyone agrees is "bad" - even though the reality is the average "welfare mother" is a divorced age 32 woman with only two children. They perpetuate myths and go on with these stupid projects, while neglecting real problems...like you say. And their own interests and investments often interfere with tackling real problems like the price of gas, big businesses moving overseas, etc. The people who have the money and the control and can MAKE big changes don't want to.

Answer 3

One problem is they allocate so much money to each community for designated things.
For example say one community is allocated one million to roads
they have to do one million dollars worth of road work so they repair roads that do not need repaired. If they don't and have a quarter of a million dollars left over then the next year they are only given three fourths of a million dollars for that year. Then communities that need more have to do without because of the way the system is set up.

Answer 4

I live in a small town and I agree. We Americans do seem to overlook what is important. I even think fixing up some of these public neighborhoods and helping people to get good jobs is an overlooked problem as well.

Answer 5

Government money is being spent in wars rather than in infrastructure causing roads and bridges to deteriorate.

Answer 6

I hadn't thought about this but I suspect you're right, you've certainly done the research. . Good, intelligent question.