Friday, 19 May 2017

Fucking fuckers are fucking fuckers

quote [ Connecticut U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has joined a bipartisan effort to introduce a new infrastructure financing authority to help municipalities secure private funds for projects.

Blumenthal, joined by fellow Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia and Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Montana, says the bill addresses the investment shortfall in maintaining the nation’s declining infrastructure ]

This pisses me off on soooooo many levels. First and foremost, this country has tried private infrastructure. It worked so well and was so good for the economy that the state took over funding it.(see: "shunpike") Goddamn government just wants to fuck up anything good and pure.

Secondly, please don't tell me it's le Trompe and the republicans that are destroying this country. They have plenty of help. I believe these assholes DO accurately represent their districts. I work in the pointy end of government services. People DO NOT WANT TO PAY FOR THE SERVICES THEY DEMAND. Think that's not so?, fuck you, come in to work with me for a day.

I despair.
[SFW] [politics] [+1 Informative]
[by WeiYang@9:13pmGMT]

Comments

midden said[1] @ 11:23pm GMT on 19th May
Roy Blunt always makes me think of A Prairie Home Companion.

Just think how different things might have been if Trump lead off with Infrastructure Financing instead of Immigrant Persecution. I bet he'd be well over 50% in the polls, and not in nearly as much hot water, at least not yet.
HoZay said @ 12:58am GMT on 20th May
It was Obamacare that fucked him up. ICE is barging ahead without all that much resistance.
midden said @ 1:09am GMT on 20th May
I was thinking of the Muslim Ban(s), actually. Yes, healthcare is a big deal, but it didn't instantly have thousands of people protesting in the streets and airports, or immediately run into formal opposition by other branches of government.
Morris Forgot his Password said @ 4:21am GMT on 20th May
I;m not sure what the problem is. Securing private funding isn't the same as private infrastructure. I am reminded of the GTAA (Toronto) Pearson Airport expansion. A billion dollar investment delivered on time, on budget and with zero taxpayer funding. The GTAA is a not for profit corporation.
I can't speak of the US, but in Canada Public private partnerships (P3) are ongoing and so far have delivered satisfactory results.

http://www.p3canada.ca/

http://www.pppcouncil.ca/

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/public-private-partnerships.asp
WeiYang said @ 1:40pm GMT on 20th May
Well said. I guess we'll see, but I am not sure the US is up to the task.
LurkerAtTheGate said[1] @ 1:52am GMT on 21st May
Southeast US - Municipal fiberoptic network. Zero taxpayer funding, carefully organized and documented to win the multiple lawsuits of them misusing taxpayer money (plaintiff being the giant Cable providers). Decent article about it here.

Most people here describe EPB Fiber as an outstanding success. They're well above the break-even point, and announced they'll have the deployment loan repaid in a fraction of the time they'd planned. When non-locals move into town and get satellite or cable, they're asked if they're ignorant or just dumb...and every one of them I know has converted and preached EPB's virtues after just a couple months. Comcast is being pushed out, not just because of competitive pricing, but the quality of service (100 or 1000 Mb/s lines clock frequently at least 10% over and symmetric vs Comcast which is frequently 15-30% of promised, and upload is 10% of download) and outstanding customer service have basically shamed Comcast out of town. So the public/private partnership worked great.

Which is why Comcast engaged the lobbyists and the campaign donations. The state legislature banned any other group doing what EPB did, and limited EPB's growth to the areas they currently serve (note that we're near the state border -- EPB has continued to grow across the state line, the devious lovely bastards).
WeiYang said[1] @ 3:04pm GMT on 21st May
Commercial ventures, like airports and fiber optic networks are not roads or bridges or water systems. They have always been for profit ventures, so letting those who profit from them build and run them works.

Huge, public infrastructure, like roads and water certainly can be done on a commercial basis, but the costs of big infrastructure would make the price of using it on a for-profit-for-the-proprietor basis much, much higher than we currently see.

Good luck.

I am also not saying that having these things done by govt always works well. Garbage in, garbage out applies there too. Just saying that I have no particle of faith more in business than govt. Crap like this reminds me of my wife: she refuses to learn how to use her phone even minimally, and her solution to her not being able to do what her friends can do is to buy a new phone, because hers is old.

The problem with our infrastructure is not a lack of profit motive.
LurkerAtTheGate said @ 4:04pm GMT on 21st May
My point was the fiber network is public infrastructure. The "EPB" in EPB Fiber is the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, the public power utility owned by the City.

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