The United States certainly has infrastructure needs. The American Society of Civil Engineers, serious if somewhat self-interested, rates the nation’s infrastructure a C− in its 2021 report card (ASCE 2021). Some claim there is a multitrillion-dollar “infrastructure deficit,” and others have blamed inadequate public investment in infrastructure for holding back US economic productivity (e.g., Aschauer 1991). In 2021, this point of view was used to justify the trillion-dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Yet others argue that a closer analysis shows US infrastructure in much better shape and advocate for improving the allocation of funding over massive new expenditures (Duranton, Nagpal, and Turner 2020). In a similar vein, the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Global Competitiveness Report rated the United States thirteenth out of 141 countries on infrastructure—behind top-rated Singapore and Hong Kong but ahead of countries like Sweden and Denmark. While there is clearly ample opportunity to do considerable productive long-run infrastructure investment, how much should be spent, which projects should be prioritized, and what role should government—at the federal, state, or local level—have in these investments remain contentious questions.
ፍትህ ለሁሉም / Justice for All