A New Jersey bridge collapsed today, derailing a train carrying flammable, carcinogenic vinyl chloride into Mantua Creek. Now people are having trouble breathing, due to the spill’s vapors.
This is exactly why infrastructure spending is urgently needed.
What if construction was privatized versus relying on tax dollars? What would be the difference?
This article makes some great points about the problems infrastructure privatization would bring, because, after all, these projects would exist to make the most profit. Here’s an excerpt:
There are plenty of roads in states like Montana, for starters, that don’t pay for themselves and would be unappealing to private investors. There are ways around this — Madrid, for one, built its subway system by offering formula-based subsidies to private firms, which still bore the risk of a shortfall in rider demand — but it’s trickier. Few transportation experts think we can fill our multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure shortfall with private money alone.
