Because half the American population supports a party that thinks public spending should be banned.

So you end up with the classic 'privatise the profits, socialise the costs' setup.

I don't understand why people can't see that some public spending is an economic force multiplier.

I mean US infrastructure is notoriously bad for a developed economy, you have thousands of bridges that need massive remedial work to make them safe by modern standards.

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/15/us/structural-deficient-b...

Issues with US infrastructure are not due to a lack of spending but a HUGE lack of efficiency in that spending. The US actually spends more than most OECD countries on this sort of thing.

The reasons behind this poor efficiency are complex and no one really knows how to fix it.

Here is an interesting article on the NYC Subway System. It's obviously about one small slice of US infrastructure but the general story is the same.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-...

A lack of spending is not the problem.

Also, incidentally, since you mentioned "privatise the profits", it's worth noting that the Stockholm subway system is operated by MTR Corporation, a for-profit corporation based on Hong Kong.

>it's worth noting that the Stockholm subway system is operated by MTR Corporation, a for-profit corporation based on Hong Kong

It’s also worth noting that the MTR Corporation is majority owned by the Hong Kong government and, at least in Hong Kong, operates on a strict SLA where they are fined for delays.

>"Because half the American population supports a party that thinks public spending should be banned. So you end up with the classic 'privatise the profits, socialise the costs' setup."

Except that New York and California - the locations of NYC's MTA and SF's BART are both overwhelmingly Democrat strongholds.

Neither are Republican places. This is true at both the city and state level, which is where the control and funding for these metros comes from not the federal level.

> Neither are Republican places. This is true at both the city and state level, which is where the control and funding for these metros comes from not the federal level.

Wrong about NY. Albany's government might as well be from another planet compared to NYC. They currently have a Republican controlled Senate.

And it is the state-level that usually hamstrings the MTA. 2009 was a particularly bad year in which the MTA budget got raided [1] and the government was in a deadlock [2].

[1] https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2010/03/09/albany-didnt-cut-the-...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_New_York_State_Senate_lea...

No I am not wrong about New York, Republicans might currently control the senate but the State Assembly in Albany has been controlled by Democrats every year since 1992[1]. And it takes both chambers to pass legislation doesn't it?

Your first link completely supports my point:

>"A plan to shrink the state budget by $2.7 billion to keep New York from going broke was passed by the Legislature on Wednesday."

That would be the same Democrat-controlled since 1992 state legislature that passed that budget plan.

Furthermore the Governor appoints 6 of the 17 seats of the MTA board. And Governor Cuomo is a Democrat from NYC(Queens.) And the the Mayor another Democrat gets to appoint 4 seats. Thats 10 of the 17, for a majority.[1] Let's also point out that New York state has had a Democratic Governor for the last 11 years as well. So those board seat decisions have been by a Democrat for over a decade now.

That certainly seems like a healthy does ofDemocrat influence doesn't it? Maybe do a little more fact checking before telling people they are wrong.

And to be clear the context of my comment was in response to the OP who was insisting that the sad state of mass transit in NYC and SF is because of Republicans and that simply not true as both parties are equally to blame. Failure to fund infrastructure is failure by government period. Reductionist partisan finger pointing is what those have failed us would like us to believe.

[1] https://ballotpedia.org/New_York_State_Legislature

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/nyregion/who-runs-new-yor...

should follow Japan?

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2011/10/why-tokyos-pr...