By Big Al Ryan McMaken of The Mises Institute says: “No to federal government infrastructure spending”
No, We Don’t Need a Federal “Solution” to Infrastructure Problems
On December 19, an Amtrak train in Washington State killed three people and injured 100 others when it derailed and crashed into traffic lanes on a nearby highway.
The day before, Atlanta’s international airport suffered a disastrous power outage:
the whole airport, the world’s busiest, went dark for 11 hours. Thousands of flights were disrupted. For many hours nobody in authority attempted to explain—or even seemed able to explain—what had happened.
Both cases have been used to bolster claims that the US federal government needs to spend more on infrastructure.
In the wake of the Washington derailment, President Trump quickly took to Twitter to call for more government spending:
The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly…
Meanwhile, USA Today declares that the Airport’s power outage has “demonstrated” the “nation’s state of disrepair.”
The assertion that there is an “infrastructure crisis” at all remains quite dubious. As just a recent example, we might note that in his tweet about the Washington State derailment, Trump neglected to mention that the derailed train was making its first run on brand new tracks as part of a $180-million expansion of the train system in the region. It was in no way a result of “crumbling” infrastructure.
But for the sake of argument, let’s assume that many railroads, airports, highways, and bridges need repairs, and that governments will be frequently involved in addressing these needs.
But that leaves us with a another question: why is a local bridge a matter of national concern? Why must a New Yorker be taxed to fund a stretch of highway in Boise?
A common response to this is “well, the New Yorker might some day drive through Boise,” or “New Yorkers rely on goods via highways that goes through Boise.” That’s interesting, but it’s already in the self-interest of people in Boise to ensure that goods and services can easily travel in and out of the metropolitan area. This is hardly something that needs to be pointed out to local residents and officials by federal bureaucrats.
Moreover, if Boise infrastructure ought to be funded by everyone who might trade with anyone in the region, then the realities of global trade and travel require that people in Tokyo be taxed to pay for a highway in Orlando. After all, those Japanese people might visit Disney World some day! Or they might purchase a good or service that originates in Florida.
States and Cities Already Have More than Enough Wealth to Construct Infrastructure
Also unconvincing is the claim that state and local governments do not possess the resources to fix bridges or build an airport. In a global context, every state in the US is among the wealthiest places on earth.
The GDP of Georgia ($531 billion) for instance, is larger than that of Sweden, which stands at $511 …read more
Source:: The Korelin Economics Report
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