Minneapolis I-35 Bridge Collapse - Expert Op-Ed - America’s Weak Infrastructure - Popular Mechanics

The fact is that Americans have been squandering the infrastructure legacy bequeathed to us by earlier generations. Like the spoiled offspring of well-off parents, we behave as though we have no idea what is required to sustain the quality of our daily lives. Our electricity comes to us via a decades-old system of power generators, transformers and transmission lines—a system that has utility executives holding their collective breath on every hot day in July and August. We once had a transportation system that was the envy of the world. Now we are better known for our congested highways, second-rate ports, third-rate passenger trains and a primitive air traffic control system. Many of the great public works projects of the 20th century—dams and canal locks, bridges and tunnels, aquifers and aqueducts, and even the Eisenhower interstate highway system—are at or beyond their designed life span.

The reason for this is quite simple: It is the utter corruption of our political system. Our system has become a single machine designed to raise huge amounts of money for a few people through a system of institutionalized bribery by special interests, and public payment wealth transfers in exchange for votes.

Bridges and other infrastructures don’t vote, and it has already been calculated that it is cheaper to pay off the aggrieved after a New Orleans drowns, or a Minneapolis’ primary bridge falls into the river, than to actually fix our ancient infrastructure systems - since doing so would divert too much money from the more politically attractive system of direct bribes to voter segments.

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