We all know that there is a gap between how much infrastructure is needed and how much is planned; and that, no matter what your underlying assumptions are, that gap is a very large number.
Now, for perhaps the first time, comes an estimate of the cost of not building that infrastructure. And that number is even bigger.
Looking at the US alone where Congress is grappling with previously unimaginable sums, the American Society of Civil Engineers is projecting that under – spending will still be $5.7 trillion out to 2039; and that this shortfall will cost the country $35 trillion (now that is a big number …), apparently equivalent to a $3,300 decrease in disposable income for each household for each year (although I’m not sure how they arrive at this figure when there are 123 million households in the US).
Main culprits are all pretty basic: poor roads, slow internet, aging utilities, inadequate airport facilities (domestic travel should rebound post – Covid even if international travel doesn’t).
Visual Capitalist includes a plug for the private sector to share the heavy lifting, as, of course, it must.
Even if the ASCE has an axe to grind, this is food for thought.
