Is Infrastructure Our Economy’s Only Hope for Recovery?

By: Melissa Lafsky, The Infrastructurist

Commentary:

There is another set of pressures on developing infrastructure and that is based on the assumption that this development is going to have to replace the “lost” US consumer. The US strategy appears to be based on replacing the domestic consumer with the export market and that has called many people’s attention to the problems in that export centric infrastructure. Over the last twenty to thirty years the emphasis has been on supporting the import sector as opposed to the export sector and that has left everything from seaports to airports to distribution centers in the wrong place.

There is also the notion that this sector can be developed aggressively enough to substitute for the decline in the consumer sector but that is assuming that money can be funneled into these public works projects despite the lack of private sector growth that would be expected to push tax revenues higher. There is something of an assumption in some quarters that higher taxes can be raised to support the infrastructure build and that has been what keeps the energy or carbon tax in the forefront of people’s minds.

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