Mamma mia! Just fill potholes with pizza
It has taken a pizza corporation to encapsulate the physical state of America today. You’ve probably seen the ads from Domino’s Pizza, the Ann Arborbased pie-slinging giant. If your pizza gets jostled on its way to your house by some axle-eating pothole, call Domino’s and they just might repair it.
Welcome to the United States, where the condition of our basic infrastructure has deteriorated so much that a pizza maker is volunteering to fix the roads. It would be kinda funny if it weren’t so sad.
Once upon a time, and not that long ago, America’s infrastructure — its roads and bridges, its water treatment systems, its airports and electrical grid — were the envy of the world. Now it all crumbles before our eyes.
How bad have things gotten? According to the Report Card issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers, America’s infrastructure earns a D+. And by the ASCE’s estimate, it requires $4.5 trillion to get that score up to an A. That’s an awful lot of pepperoni with extra cheese.
The ASCE started putting out these grades in 1988, with a new one every four years. In 1988 the nation’s aviation infrastructure got a B-; now it rates a D. Ditto the state of our drinking water systems and the navigability of our inland waterways.
The explanation for this decline can be summarized in two words: Ronald Reagan.
During Reagan’s administration, federal investment in infrastructure stagnated even as the need for it grew. From the 1950s through the 1970s America spent about 3 percent of GDP on infrastructure. By the end of the 1980s, it was 2 percent.
Likewise, as part of his “New Federalism,” states were supposed to fill the various voids left as federal programs were diminished. So in 1977 the federal government paid about 40 percent of the cost of public works projects. By 1989, it was 25 percent.
So the dismal state of our bridges and ports, our parks and schools is a result of reduced federal spending and the unwillingness of states to make up the difference.
Here’s what that means in Ohio: According to the engineers, our state’s wastewater treatment facilities need $14.5 billion in repairs and upgrades. Our drinking water plants need more than $12 billion. Seven percent of our bridges are rated as “structurally deficient,” while car damage due to bad road conditions costs each driver in the state an average of $475 per year.
In 2016, candidate Donald Trump promised a yuuge infrastructure investment. He promised to unveil it last summer. What we got instead was another round of tax cuts to the tune of $1.5 trillion, almost exactly the amount he promised to spend on infrastructure.
In that sense, the responsibility for America’s failing infrastructure lies squarely with you and me. Every time we elect someone who promises yet more tax cuts we choose to let the physical fabric of the nation fall apart yet more.
Kudos to Domino’s, I guess, but pizza isn’t going to make America’s roads and bridges great again. Different political choices can.