Sadly this issue is very political. We have a minority party that doesn't believe that business should have to pay taxes, even though they greatly benefit from government spending. Could you have a trucking industry without the interstate highway program? Could you have air shipping without air traffic control and runway construction? Could you have a knowledge economy without patents and a legal system to protect them? The answer is NO!!!
The economy is an investment, not a piggy bank. The right has some valid points, (unreasonable union wages and work rules and wasted tax dollars) but this doesn't mean throwing the baby out with the bath water!!! Corporations and high wage earners have never been wealthier or paid fewer taxes, yet they are not hiring?
Set corporate earnings taxes in the middle of the industrialized world's average. Eliminate tax loop holes; everyone pays the same rate, regardless of how you earn your money. Publicly finance political campaigns, eliminating need for large donors. Use ROI calculations to prioritize infrastructure projects, regardless of location. Create incentives to do the right thing and create greater disincentives for doing the wrong thing. Hold politicians accountable.
The road to economic prosperity requires sacrifice and hard work, but this burden can't be born by people who benefit least. There is a middle ground between socialism and unfettered capitalism; libertarianism and authoritarianism; economic collapse and limitless success. This middle way requires politicians to be in office for the common good and not their own!!!
Bridges: enormous examples of physical infrastructure.
But when they begin to fail, they also reveal themselves as economic infrastructure, too. We’re not talking about construction jobs here; we’re talking day-in, day-out business operations.
A report by Carol Wolf in Bloomberg demonstrates how several communities in the United States with aging bridges are incurring very real costs after those bridges are closed down, forcing goods and other transportation to take longer (and therefore more costly, in time and money) alternate routes.
Suddenly, it becomes crystal clear that investment in infrastructure is indirectly investment in local business.
Wolf reports:
[Jewelry store owner Jim] Benton says he’s having customers pick up repairs on Saturday, when the traffic isn’t as bad. He’s made special arrangements to return unsold merchandise.
While big national companies like UPS and FedEx have developed information systems to reroute drivers when detours occur, small and medium-sized businesses don’t have that luxury. The bottom line: a good chunk of a nation’s economy depends on the real-life movement of goods, and therefore depends on the viability of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and tunnels to conduct business.
Political football aside, this ongoing risk creates new opportunities for public-private partnerships. Can companies pool resources together to invest in the infrastructure they need to conduct business? The private sector can’t subsidize the U.S.’s sprawling infrastructure entirely, but funding for a few key bridges, roads and tunnels could keep the local economy humming — and avoid outsize detours and costs.
Crumbling Bridges’ $140 Billion Tab Leaves Business Paying Price [Bloomberg]
Photo: Dan McKay/Flickr
