Lost Our Way?

It seems to me, we used to be a country with big dreams, tackling big
things, and now we seem to no longer have big dreams, tackling big things.
As I listen to some of the really really big infrastucture projects going on
all around the world, and I look at what is happening here in the United
States today, I see none of those big projects even in the planning stages
here or even anyone (other than a small set of dreamers) talking about doing
something bold and risky. Countries all over the world are moving ahead

El Castor...

Out here in California Arnold has proposed a $222 Billion
infrastructure rehabilitation project which would renovate roads,
bridges, schools, etc. Seems "big" to me.

Rumpelstiltskin...

Yeah, but we'd be getting something visible for it. Or at least
I hope we would.

Harlow Wilcox...

And it's not just California. All over the country roads, highways,
bridges, water systems, schools, the electric grid, etc, etc, etc have
suffered the 'benign neglect' of deferred maintenance while big, bold,
and futuristic projects were emphasized. Well, now the chickens are

Florida...

When we visited relatives in upstateNY a couple of years ago, a lot
of the talk was how literally hundreds of small bridges over secondary
roads, rivers, railroads, etc., were in disrepair, and some were too
dangerous to use any more, leaving rural folks stranded - miles away by
road from a town that they could see easily, a mile or less away.

coming home to roost and our world is falling down around us. I'd much
rather see us repair what we've already built than build something new,
big, and bold that will disintegrate before its time.

Rumpelstiltskin...

Government is bankrupt. I agree with your overambitious
projects, but foolish wars and foolish tax cuts are a vastly
bigger drain on the ability of governments to do anything.

Jerry Okamura...

Wars are never foolish. Tax cuts are also never foolish. It gives the
citizens of this country more money to spend.

Florida...

I agree. Most areas don't need the modern equivalent of pyramids.
One of the main examples of this kind of extravagant waste in NYstate
is Nelson Rockefeller's huge, poorly functioning, rather silly-looking
government center that was a monument to himself, built with taxpayers'
money. It was plopped down in the middle of Albany, erasing or crowding
out a lot of the original buildings. Before that, Albany was a pretty,
small city with a hundreds of 19th-century buildings and several large
parks intact, a place where you could walk around neighborhoods.

with plans to explore the frontiers of space, and we argue about whether we
should use robotics or humans to explore space. Some countries are planning
on building structures that are a quarter of a mile in height, and no one
that I am aware of is even thinking of doing that in the United States
(again other than perhaps a small group of dreamers). We seem to be doing
things in reverse. I have to wonder, what has changed?

El Castor...

"The moonbats bark thrice at midnight."