Minneapolis Bridge Collapse Reveals Nation’s Skewed Priorities
The bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a human tragedy and an engineering calamity. But it shouldn’t surprise anybody. It is a case study of what happens when a nation gets its priorities wrong.Over the past six years, the US has spent trillions of dollars funneling tax breaks to the rich, paying interest on the national debt, and invading other nations in wars of choice. Empirically, those have been our national priorities.
Meanwhile, we have neglected the physical platform - the roads, bridges, dams, rail systems, etc. - on which the entire economy operates. If we continue this way, the larger collapse will be of the economy itself. As with the Minneapolis bridge, it will not be a matter “whether,” but of “when.”
In 2001, the American Society of Civil Engineers released a “Report Card on the Nation’s Infrastructure.” The study examined the state of the nation’s public improvements. Its conclusions were alarming.
Overall, the report gave the nation’s infrastructure a grade of “D plus.” Twenty seven percent of our bridges were rated “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete.” Our energy systems were graded “D”. Drinking water and waste water systems rated “D minus,” more worthy of a third world country than the richest nation in the world.
These are the systems that the private economy rests on, runs on, relies on to carry out all of the nation’s business. As they decay, everything in the economy is dragged down with them.
According to the ASCE, the cost to repair these public assets, to bring the entire nation’s infrastructure up to first-world status, was $1.6 trillion over five years.
But nothing was done. Maintenance expenditures on the nation’s electricity distribution grid have decreased by 1% a year. Billions of gallons of untreated sewerage are released into the public waterways each year, yet Congress cut spending on water systems in 2005 for the first time in eight years.
The list goes on and on so that the 2005 report downgraded the system further, to an overall “D.” We’re going the wrong way.
Meanwhile, what did we do with the nation’s wealth? First, we gave almost a trillion dollars to those who were already the richest people in the world.
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 38% of George Bush’s $1.9 trillion in tax cuts have gone to the top 1% of income earners - those making at least $1.65 million per year. A full 48%, almost half, went to the top 5% of income earners with annual incomes of a least $277,000 per year.
Maybe the trouble with our nation really is that the super-rich don’t have enough and that everybody else has too much. With bridges falling down during rush hour in major American cities and with more to come, it’s a question we ought to be asking.
Second, we’ve spent more than $2 trillion in the past six years just paying interest on the national debt. More than two thirds of that total debt came from Republican tax cuts for the super-rich. And the vast majority of the interest payments on that self-same debt go to - you guessed it - the same super-rich.
In other words, in addition to showering the wealthiest citizens with $1 trillion in tax cuts over the past six years, we’ve also graced them with $2 trillion in interest payments for the money they’ve loaned us to cover the deficits caused by those tax cuts. It’s nice work if you can get it.
What else have we done with the nation’s wealth?
We will soon have spent $1 trillion on the war in Iraq and $2 trillion before it is over, according to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. We now know that the justifications for the war - that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, that it was involved in 9/11, that it had ties to Al Qaeda - were all false.
Maybe the trouble with our nation really is that we aren’t spending money enough invading other countries under false pretenses. That’s what our actual spending suggests. It’s a question we need to ask.
Infrastructure is absolutely essential to the entire economy. It’s like oil in the engine of your car: you can postpone maintenance for a while but eventually it catches up with you. And it always costs more to fix it after the fact. Our problem is that we’ve chosen other priorities.
We’ve chosen to pillage the nation’s infrastructure so we could transfer trillions of dollars of the nation’s wealth to a handful of glutted Republican campaign contributors. We’ve elected to invade a country that posed no threat while sloughing off the foundation on which the entire economy operates.
Stating these truths is not “class warfare” as Republicans are so anxious to allege. These are empirical statements, the “money where your mouth is” reality of taxes, budgets, and spending under a Republican administration.
The Minneapolis bridge collapse is a canary in our economic mine shaft, a wake up call to re-examine these priorities before it is too late. If not, the next collapse - not “whether” but “when” - will be far more damaging.
Robert Freeman writes about economics, history, and education. He can be reached at robertfreeman10@yahoo.com.
The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis is the latest result of your tax dollars at work here in the greatest country in America. (We used to say the greatest country in the world but with the illegal invasion of Mesopotamia and the torture thing we’ve had to cut back and we can now say we are the greatest country in America)
Your tax dollars were at work on the Minneapolis bridge on I35W that was maintained the Neo-Republican way, which is to divert American tax dollars to the war and the rich while ignoring domestic maintenance on such things as roads and bridges or security at ports and harbors.
Your tax dollars were at work on July 18 when a 24-inch underground steam pipe exploded in New York City where one woman died, and forty-five people were injured, two of them critically. The pipe was installed in 1924. That was the second personal confrontation New Yorkers had with political priorities of infrastructure, or lack there of.
The first time you really saw your tax dollars were at work was for the Northeast Blackout of 2003.
You saw your tax dollars at work in Katrina at New Orleans as the levees failed and the city was inundated.
Your tax dollars are also at work on the Louisiana coast and the rest of the storm ravaged region. There are still areas unchanged since the storm.
Your tax dollars were also at work in the response to that disaster with adequate National Guard forces deployed in Iraq and unable to help here at home.
Your tax dollars are at work in Iraq as well as the American death toll continues to rise and Iraqi’s continue to die too while the Halliburton’s of the world continue to profit as gas prices rise or hover on the ridiculous.
Your tax dollars are at work in our antiquated rails and public transportation systems.
And we haven’t even mentioned nuclear facilities let alone the waste.
Your precious tax dollars are at work doing nothing good and you don’t seem to care. How very odd.
It seems time to recall programs such as FDR implemented in the 1930’s to restore jobs and provide a vital and strong infrastructure for a crumbling America. This way your precious tax dollars won’t be wasted on the rich and callous. Hopefully your precious vote won’t be either.
Amos: Thanks for the reminder about the blackout of 2003. Like most Americans, many important things slip my mind as I go on my careless way. Dennis Kucinich wrote an excellent piece on the blackout, as he was paying attention to failings of the seminal electric company before the blackout happened.
Junior has cut the budgets for renewable energy at NREL and any other place where he thinks he can get money for his tax breaks for the rich and Iraq. The previous Transportation Secretary mentioned before he left office that would be no money for any new roads from here on out….ever.
There is no discussion of any of this. There is no informed debate about where we want OUR money spent. Just ram a bill through Congress that guts public spending for the general good and lines the pockets of their rich friends.
Yes, the Minneapolis bridge collapse is one canary in one coal mine but, hey, what about the infrastructure in New Orleans? That disaster was so , much greater than what happened in Minneapolis and that didn’t get us to change how we allocate our resources.
The Minneapolis bridge is a harbinger, of course, but it won’t change a thing. If the disgrace of New Orleans hasn’t shaken us up, nothing will.
There are still many thousands of people without homes since Hurricane Katrina. We’re gonna sit by and let a whole lot more folks suffer before we, as a people, put a stop to it.
“America is the greatest nation on Earth” and “America is a force for good in the world” are cherished values in the minds of huge numbers of Americans. Reality has drowned these visions. The Mississippi River has swallowed our neighbors, from near the headwaters and from the delta. This river physically divides our nation rather like the political gulf between the no/low tax folk and those of us wanting both quality infrastructure and the avoidance of severe indebtedness in our economy. We water-board our enemies and those perceived to be a threat. But this simulated drowning sinks our own values. We used to execute those who didn’t live up to the Geneva Conventions, now we emulate them. As global warming will ultimately swamp huge areas of the world, we’ve been wallowing through a dark pool of verbiage delivered courtesy of Exxon. For years they’ve been paying up to $10,000 for “scientific articles” denying the certainty of human-caused global warming. The Bush Administration gave us a sea of lies to sell us war, tax cuts for the rich, snake oil, and one fishy idea after another. These malodorous plots came to us pre-packaged in our newspapers nearly every day. Trying to find truth amidst all the news fit to print, well, that was a challenge. Here it is, the hottest time of the year, but there’s something cold and clammy oozing up all around our dreams. The Republicans have mostly thought that “the government is the problem.” Highly influential Republican, Grover Norquist, has famously stated that he’d like to “drown (our government) in the bathtub.” With their disdain for government, they are consequently unable to make government do virtually anything of value for us. It’s all disaster, all the time, while our government is actually growing bigger and fatter and sucking money down every sinkhole idea that rich Republican campaign donors can work into a frothy lather. I don’t have a lot of good suggestions, but hope floats, and parents, at the very least, please see that your children receive swimming lessons.
Yawn! The purpose of any government is to protect and serve its people. We have known for quite some time this is not the case. Bush is not the problem, our complacency is the problem. We need to put some effort into rebuilding our administrative infrastructure first and then everything else will fall into place.
Impeach Cheney and dump the incumbents, close the federal reserve, start printing our own currency and restore the republic.
Ron Paul…
SHALL WE RENAME COLLAPSED BRIDGES IN HONOR OF G W BUSH?
Pencil necks bash the recent “D” grade given to American bridges, highways, waterpipes and schools. Hey, a “D” is still top 4. President Bush was a straight “C-” scholar in college and look how far he got.
In honor of the Republican committment to drown public government in the bathtub, we should rename all collapsed federal highway bridges in honor of George W Bush. After all, who has more experience crashing things–baseball teams, oil companies, justice systems, democracies.
It wasn`t enough for our Great Leaders to destroy the entire infrastructure of Iraq for generations, their no tax (on the rich) and spend policies are going to have the same effect here in America. These guys are nothing but a giant wrecking crew and in the end will wreck it all for themselves and their rich buddies also. What happens when China thinks we are going down the tube and takes their money back? I suppose the Bushites can figure some ways to squeeze the poor and middle class again. When our infrastructure was being built, the wealthy were helping out instead of bleeding the country for themselves. However, Bush says not to worry about anything except terror, terror, terror, and he is protecting us all from that (unless it happens when he is vacationing on the ranch). Kucinich-Prez Feingold-VP
It is a very scary and sad event. I really hope this brings about change.
Instead of spending money to make america better we taxpayers have to pay for the bombs to destroy some other countries infrastucture and then pay to rebuild it. When you look at what the netherlands, singapore and hong kong have done to prevent flooding with well engineered solutions in comparison to the earth levees in New Orleans you begin to realize that the USA is moving towards 3rd world status. Except for that uppper 5%. Who cares if the bridge collapses if you have a private helicoptor taking you home.
KERNEL: Right on!
HUB CAP: Good idea! I’d add to it that EVERY toxic DUMP be named in “honor” of Bush, the quintessential destroyer of all things sound and sacred… or one who can reliably turn it all to s–t!
As a Minnesotan who regulary drove that 35W bridge, I’ve noticed infrastructure in general in rough repair. For instance, there are potholes 1-2 years old on 35W in various places I regularly commute over, I witnessed some building painters here on campus at the University patch a building with rotted wood — prior to painting — with DUCT TAPE, the Washington Ave. bridge (not far from the collapsed bridge) which connects the East/West banks of the University has an upper-level covered pedestrian area. It used to be heated up until the 1980’s or so, which is nice in Minnesota winters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Avenue_Bridge_(Minneapolis)
And so on and so on.
Meanwhile, the state gets a tax-funded stadium, a new corporate-logo stadium for the university (TCF bank), boondoogle LRT, etc. The system is so terribly whored out by developers that I expect honesty to be a character trait that immediately disqualifies ALL civil servants who seek administrative or budgetary positions.
And they have people parroting the call for a new gas tax (as if that would be used any differently — just more corruption & graft. Let’s demand a sharper and progressive income & corporate tax. Tax the rich, make them pay their fair share, and then they may exercise a little more honesty in their graft — since it’ll be mostly THEIR money they’re wasting.
As a citizen of New Orleans, which the U.S. Corps of Engineers flooded and destroyed, and which is now cut off and ignored by the federal government now that Halliburton has been enriched by the initial cleanup, I can attest to the fact that this nation is in serious trouble. We were the tip of the iceberg, and broken levees and bridge collapses will become a way of life unless the priorities of the nation changes. And that won’t happen until people stand up and hold the government accountable.
Here in New Orleans, we can get thousands and thousands of people out for a parade, even when the city has been destroyed, but when the local organization, Levees.Org, calls for people to come and protest the Corps of Engineers, we are lucky to get 200. Until that attitude changes, expect more of the same.
“We’re gonna sit by and let a whole lot more folks suffer before we, as a people, put a stop to it.”
In sociology, they call it core values. American core values are self reliance and personal responsibility. The Repugs are playing to that, they are going “with the grain” so to speak.
If you are without a job or a home it is YOUR fault. It is not a system failure or societies responsibility. If you get laid off, it is not the executive’s fault or the economy, it is YOUR fault. You took the job, you have free will.
So those kind of background forces go on and on. It is neither either/or it is both. It is personal AND societies responsibility and the sooner we figure that out, the sooner we can get this country back on track.
Robert Freeman wrote: “Stating these truths is not “class warfare” as Republicans are so anxious to allege.” Could we please drop the apologetic tone? There is in fact a class war going on, and they started it, not us. The oligarchy has been waging one-sided class warfare since the 1970s. It began in earnest on 4 May 1979, when Margaret Thatcher became the Prime Minister of Britain. It’s time the working class (which is most of us, including virtually all who consider ourselves “middle class”) started waging class warfare in self-defence.
Mark Marshall
Toronto
Mark,
I agree. Reagan ushered in that nonsense along with Maggie. They were both misguided, but the people in the U.S. listened to Reagan telling everyone that if you just let us reduce government and lower taxes, you will all be rich. Every good confidence game starts with a greedy target and this is no exception.
“There is in fact a class war going on, and they started it, not us. The oligarchy has been waging one-sided class warfare since the 1970s. It began in earnest on 4 May 1979, when Margaret Thatcher became the Prime Minister of Britain. It’s time the working class (which is most of us, including virtually all who consider ourselves “middle class”) started waging class warfare in self-defence.”
I think it’s been going on even longer than that.
Working people and poor people are the ones shuffling off to work and everything. They don’t care if people like us drown. We’re urban scum.
I remember when i was a freshman in high school here in Pittsburgh, and getting nervous when the PAT bus would get stuck in traffic on the Smithfield Street Bridge, which was in dire need of repairs at the time. It took forever to get it fixed. And it still shakes when you’re on it.
And whenever there are improvements made, that money always goes to the suburbs seemingly.
This is another example of how I believe that inequality will be what kills America. The wealthy will neglect the cities and watch them crumble.
It disgusts me so, because I’m a life-long urbanite who refuses to be chased to the boonies by crime and decay. And what disgusts me even more is how that those very seeds of crime and decay have been planted and tended by the elites.
When Reagan took office, he vowed to reduce the CA state government by 20%. But within a year, his “watchdogs” increased the state Government by over 25% with no reduction of the current employees. He then closed several State Hospitals putting many mentally deficient out on the streets. Then he bargained for the release of the Iranian hostages and handily won re-election. First of all, we should impeach Bush, Cheney, et al.
Gene Marshall, Sacramento