Photo: by Juan n’Only
President Obama spoke today about infrastructure underinvestment in America and the critical need to finance and rebuild public construction projects in the US.
Our decaying roads, substandard transportation, shabby airports, underfunded parks, collapsing bridges; all of these are evidence of how America is falling apart. We need to invest in our own nation.
Around the world, other countries are spending huge sums of money to build better systems and facilities required in a modern world. China, Europe and even South America and Asia look much better than many parts of America these days.
If you don’t believe me, try using Google Maps Street view and just drop the yellow man on any part of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and France. You will see evidence of parks, bicycle lanes, smooth roads, and environmentally sensitive design. People will be walking, biking, or strolling along canal paths and well-paved streets. Cities and towns boast many trees, ornamental lampposts, modern and graphically up-to-date signs and well paved streets. This is what infrastructure investment means: better living through domestic investment in the public realm.
Los Angeles and places like Detroit look barbaric and primitive compared to other places around the globe.
And recently Der Spiegel published photos showing East Germany in 1991 just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in 2010, after a massive reinvestment program undertaken by the German government.
