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1. ptero+(OP)[view] [source] 2020-06-22 21:04:44
It is tempting to blame the lack of funds for the problems in the US public infrastructure, but problematic management seems to play a much bigger role. Almost any public infrastructure project around me: paving local roads, repairing a bridge or doing the Big Dig takes much longer than planned and ends up with huge cost overruns. And is plagued by corruption, cronyism or incompetence (often, pick at least two).

Yes, we should rebuild the infrastructure. If more money is required we should find it. But we should find a way that holds the bureaucrats accountable on both the costs and the schedule; otherwise we will be throwing good money after the bad. My 2c.

replies(2): >>asdfma+r1 >>mschus+sm
2. asdfma+r1[view] [source] 2020-06-22 21:12:31
>>ptero+(OP)
Perhaps obstructionism and attacks on government as the problem -- instead of clearheaded, reasonable governance -- has destroyed the ability for government to provide solutions.
3. mschus+sm[view] [source] 2020-06-22 23:11:10
>>ptero+(OP)
That way would be: do what Germany did before the 90s and the privatization wave.

Every city/county had their own "Bauhof" with a couple of construction workers and machines for all kinds of maintenance that a city had: snow plowing in the winter, pothole fillings and greenkeeping in the summer, pipe laying/maintenance, traffic lights and general lights maintenance, other infrastructure upkeep.

Today much of this is mandatory outsourced to the lowest bidder, with no way of accounting for regionality or quality.

To make it worse, cities and counties used to have capable public servants in architecture and supervision, which meant that for those projects where external help was needed (think construction of new projects) that work could be properly supervised and issues either prevented in the planning stage or caught during construction and remedied before that became too expensive. Nowadays, thanks to more and more budget cuts, pay in public service is a third to a half of the private sector which means that even if there were a budget no one would apply. In IT the situation is even more dire, which is why almost all major government IT projects fail, with the additional complexity that most IT projects have way too many stakeholders and no leadership.

We as Western societies need to roll back that privatization mandate, at least for areas where it has obviously failed.

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