Fuck Cars (not all) & Car Dependant Infrastructure

Our government contract acquisition system invites grift. Concrete poured as building foundations by the US Forest Service in the 1950s still does an excellent job supporting the buildings they're for 70 years later. Meanwhile the contractor hired by WMATA under recommendation of a former president poured concrete that didn't provide structural integrity from the time it was poured to when the stations were supposed to open for riders. Our infrastructure systems are expensive on a per mile basis because they're done cheaply.

Think about a cheap pair of flip flops from wal mart, and a nice pair of sandals from someone like Luna Sandals. Which pair do you think will last longer? Which will need replaced more frequently? How long will a cheap pair of sandals need to last to be cheaper on a per mile basis than an expensive pair?

Then let's take it a step further. Forget sandals. Imagine dress shoes. The Walmart pair wears out, it's done forever. The $300 Goodyear welted pair last longer, and can be rebuilt for $80 when they're worn out. The rebuilt pair lasts just as long as they did originally. How long until the Walmart shoes are costing you more than the nice shoes?

Until the 1980s, this country was pretty consistently making the long term investments and doing work internally. Then we saw a policy shift to believing that the private sector could do things cheaper and more effectively. Turns out, all they did it with was with an excess of profit. Which gets us to now where we're the Walmart shopper that knows the $300 dress shoes would last longer and be cheaper in the long run, but we have a job interview tomorrow and bills to pay. We keep making the long term more expensive decision because things have decayed bad enough that we need something now.

The fix? Shockingly simple! Tax the rich. There's no reason we should let them siphon off 45 years of government money without expecting something back