hedgehog
Mentor
Mr and Mrs America meet NEO-CON Governor Tim Pawlenty
bridge collapse
- Thread starter hedgehog
- Start date
Crumbling infrastructure was already a big problem before this tragedy, especially in older areas of the country. Bridges, pipelines, water lines, battered roads, lots of aging infrastructure and no money to pay for replacing it. Here in Pennsylvania there's a political battle raging between those who want to make I-80 a toll road and those who want to leave it free. It's the only east-west interstate across the state that isn't tolled. There's already a huge shortage of funds to pay for necessary roadwork and bridgework. One way or another, Middle America will be squeezed even more to pay for it.
I was out driving most of the day today and there's construction everywhere. The road systemin the western part of the stateis Third World like, but all that can be done is to try and keep it from getting noticeably worse. Actually improving it -- forget about it.
I was out driving most of the day today and there's construction everywhere. The road systemin the western part of the stateis Third World like, but all that can be done is to try and keep it from getting noticeably worse. Actually improving it -- forget about it.
Animalmuther0
Guru
- Joined
- May 5, 2005
- Messages
- 274
I think that its Bush's fault. He should have had all of these bridges fixed by now.
I work in the infrastructure industry, and believe me, the infrastructure in
this country has been underfunded for a long, long time. Plenty of money
for new aircraft carriers, welfare for blacks and mexicans, and money for
minority jobs in public education, and other worthless nonsense, but none
for infrastructure.
There is NO shortage of money. Its just being spent on the wrong things.
We already pay taxes for infrastructure through taxes on gasoline. Toll
roads are just an admission that gas tax money is being stolen from the
road funds. Check it out and you'll see that's true.
this country has been underfunded for a long, long time. Plenty of money
for new aircraft carriers, welfare for blacks and mexicans, and money for
minority jobs in public education, and other worthless nonsense, but none
for infrastructure.
There is NO shortage of money. Its just being spent on the wrong things.
We already pay taxes for infrastructure through taxes on gasoline. Toll
roads are just an admission that gas tax money is being stolen from the
road funds. Check it out and you'll see that's true.
foreverfree
Mentor
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2004
- Messages
- 902
The guy behind the following site will have to update one page on it...
http://www.ajfroggie.com/roads/minnesota/interstate/i35w-nmp ls.htm
John
http://www.ajfroggie.com/roads/minnesota/interstate/i35w-nmp ls.htm
John
Interesting article by Paul Craig Roberts.
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/070801_barons.htm
(snip)
Return of the Robber Barons
As the Bush Regime outfits B-2 stealth bombers with 30,000 pound monster "bunker buster" bombs for its coming attack on Iran, the US economy continues its 21st century decline. While profits soar for the armaments industry, the American people continue to take it on the chin.
The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the real wages and salaries of US civilian workers are below those of 5 years ago. It could not be otherwise with US corporations offshoring good jobs in order to reduce labor costs and, thereby, to convert wages once paid to Americans into multi-million dollar bonuses paid to CEOs and other top management.
Good jobs that still remain in the US are increasingly filled with foreign workers brought in on work visas. Corporate public relations departments have successfully spread the lie that there is a shortage of qualified US workers, necessitating the importation into the US of foreigners. The truth is that the US corporations force their American employees to train the lower paid foreigners who take their jobs. Otherwise, the discharged American gets no severance pay. [See, for example, BofA: Train your replacement, or no severance pay for you By David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle, 2006 ]
Law firms, such as Cohen & Grigsby, compete in marketing their services to US corporations on how to evade the law and to replace their American employees with lower paid foreigners. As Lawrence Lebowitz, vice president at Cohen & Grigsby, [send him mail] explained in the law firm's marketing video, "our goal is clearly, not to find a qualified and interested US worker."
Meanwhile, US colleges and universities continue to graduate hundreds of thousands of qualified engineers, IT professionals, and other professionals who will never have the opportunity to work in the professions for which they have been trained. America today is like India of yesteryear, with engineers working as bartenders, taxi cab drivers, waitresses, and employed in menial work in dog kennels as the offshoring of US jobs dismantles the ladders of upward mobility for US citizens
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/070801_barons.htm
(snip)
Return of the Robber Barons
As the Bush Regime outfits B-2 stealth bombers with 30,000 pound monster "bunker buster" bombs for its coming attack on Iran, the US economy continues its 21st century decline. While profits soar for the armaments industry, the American people continue to take it on the chin.
The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the real wages and salaries of US civilian workers are below those of 5 years ago. It could not be otherwise with US corporations offshoring good jobs in order to reduce labor costs and, thereby, to convert wages once paid to Americans into multi-million dollar bonuses paid to CEOs and other top management.
Good jobs that still remain in the US are increasingly filled with foreign workers brought in on work visas. Corporate public relations departments have successfully spread the lie that there is a shortage of qualified US workers, necessitating the importation into the US of foreigners. The truth is that the US corporations force their American employees to train the lower paid foreigners who take their jobs. Otherwise, the discharged American gets no severance pay. [See, for example, BofA: Train your replacement, or no severance pay for you By David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle, 2006 ]
Law firms, such as Cohen & Grigsby, compete in marketing their services to US corporations on how to evade the law and to replace their American employees with lower paid foreigners. As Lawrence Lebowitz, vice president at Cohen & Grigsby, [send him mail] explained in the law firm's marketing video, "our goal is clearly, not to find a qualified and interested US worker."
Meanwhile, US colleges and universities continue to graduate hundreds of thousands of qualified engineers, IT professionals, and other professionals who will never have the opportunity to work in the professions for which they have been trained. America today is like India of yesteryear, with engineers working as bartenders, taxi cab drivers, waitresses, and employed in menial work in dog kennels as the offshoring of US jobs dismantles the ladders of upward mobility for US citizens
LabMan
Mentor
It is much easier to reach third world,banana republic status,when a country looks the part.Notice how many burned out neighborhoods are a part of the American landscape.
Another problem is the amount of foreign ownership of US businesses. This creates two problems. One the foreign companies bring in their own people to do the good jobs, and also they don't really give a crap about America and Americans, so they feel no guilt in outsourcing jobs.
There is a lot of foreign ownership here due to the tremendous amount of money those countries have from buying up US treasury debt. Our insane government has been inflating the currency to pay for the welfare/warfare state and other countries have been footing the bill. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. It's going to be ugly here in a few years.
There is a lot of foreign ownership here due to the tremendous amount of money those countries have from buying up US treasury debt. Our insane government has been inflating the currency to pay for the welfare/warfare state and other countries have been footing the bill. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. It's going to be ugly here in a few years.
New York City gets some heavy rain and is pretty much shut down. Where I live, there was periodic strong thunderstorms today and hundreds of thousands lost electricity, various towns and roads were flooded -- the same ones that flood every time -- and the highways became parking lots. America's infrastructure is a lot more fragile than the power structure lets on.
DixieDestroyer
Hall of Famer
Bart said:
Outstanding indeed! Dr.Roberts (father of "Reaganomics") is a genius who knows full well how the economy and "Crapitol sHill" work. All of these major problems mentioned in his article are totally by design to destroy the American middle class. The Globalist Elite are pulling out all the stops to implement their (police-state enforced) psuedo-socialist dystopia complete with a 5% Ruling Elite and 95% peasant/serf class. We need to fight for our Republic's future like never before folks!!!
http://www.jbs.org/freedom