Originally Posted By: Grouch
I think the problem is that elected officials look no further ahead than the next election. They don't look at the long term implications of their generally poor decisions.

+1

Whether we're talking physical infrastructure, our education system, Social Security, Medicare, etc., the time horizons we're talking about are too long to fit into our election cycles (and even our attention spans). Not so easy to take credit for a new levee system when the first shovel of dirt won't be turned until years after you've been booted out of office amid complaints that you spent too much money on a levee system that is still on the drawing boards! Very perverse.

The free market has a similar problem due to this quarterly earnings report mentality. Why spend $2 billion now on infrastructure now when the benefits won't appear until I have long left the company with a big fat bonus for keeping costs down under my watch?

However, if people actually voted for candidates that supported these kinds of projects, then that is a tangible here-and-now benefit to them and they would respond. Unfortunately, you don't see too many excited voters saying, "Yeah, X is my man, yessiree. He voted for that billion dollar sewer bond. This guy has vision!"