A lot of the infrastructure we use today is so old that it's crumbling, and has been for years. Few people are interested in doing anything to fix it.

During the last administration, we had a fake 'shovel-ready' infrastructure program to boost economic growth. I say fake, because mostly very-visible PR projects such as changes to roads and parks got funded. Not real infrastructure such as sewer plants, under-street pumping stations, painting the underside of bridges and other invisible but essential projects that have been 'shovel-ready' for a decade but still undone.

Biggest waste of public funds in a generation. And mostly used to build further infrastructure such as roads, burdening the maintenance budget even more. Instead of helping.

> Biggest waste of public funds in a generation

A certain little jaunt through the middle east would like to have a word with you.

Nearly all of that spending was simply added directly the national debt, very little actually came out of the general fund.

I'm sorry I'm taking your bait, but obviously it is the same waste of money whether you pay for it with cash or on your credit card.

Surely there are some negative side effects of more a trillion dollars of debt!

Ha! But did that accelerate our maintenance backlog? Never mind the money; its about the physical infrastructure we've got to keep up.

>Why do developing countries spend a lot more on development than developed countries do? That's almost a tautology.

I don't think it's as simple as "we're developed now". Is there some arbitrary set point at which a country is completely "developed" and we should just stop doing things? Why is there such an aversion in this society to "spending money" as if it's something that we are losing rather than simply putting people to work and generating economic output. The complete gridlock which has gripped the US over the past 40 years has left vast amounts of the population sick and dying with no hope for anything.