The New Ideas Blog

Forbes magazine recently did a profile of Victor Li from the the University of Michigan, and his newest innovation; flexible self-healing concrete. Great idea (and you should see the photo of the concrete bending without breaking). But that is not exactly what this post is about. Instead I want to look at another idea that occurred to me as I read the article. It is that we often create things without regard to the future costs they will impose on us or others.

In fact, after neglecting the massive highway system we have built in this country for decades, it would now cost well over two trillion dollars to catch up on maintenance and repairs. That’s according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which gives U.S. infrastructure a grade of “D.” The U.S. Department of transportation acknowledges that a large proportion of our bridges are structurally deficient. Li himself came from Hong Kong and wondered why the roads and bridges here were in such poor shape compared to those in his homeland.

The weather here is worse, but the more important factor seems to be that we built more than we can afford to maintain. In fact, in almost any scenario, by the time we spent the over two trillion necessary to catch up, there would be hundreds of billions more to do. It may just be too much to afford, and Victor Li suggests that new technology is the only solution.

Although new technology can always help, I want to suggest another solution. Let’s stop building and building without regard to the future expenses we create.

Imagine a family that wins two hundred thousand dollars in a lottery, and spends it all on a new car, a boat, a cabin, three large dogs and motorcycles for all the kids. Though they didn’t go into debt, now that the money is gone they are in worse financial shape than ever. Why? Because they are back to living from paycheck to paycheck, but with the added costs of feeding the dogs, repairing boats and motorcycles, paying taxes and insurance on a cabin, paying fees and insurance on the car, boat and motorcycles, and veterinary bills for the new pets as well.

This is easy to see on the level of a family. Even “smart” shoppers who for example, buy a used recreational vehicle for a sixth of what a new one would cost, don’t always think about the future expenses the ownership of this toy will impose. But we make this mistake as a society as well. A new park, for example, can be a wonderful addition to a city, but don’t believe the price tag is the one quoted in the papers. That’s just the up-front price. Forever more the city will also have the cost of maintaining that park. It may well be worth it, but how do we honestly make such a decision as voters if we don’t consider those ongoing expenses?

I think we built too many roads and too many bridges in the United States. Would life be so different if we had fewer places to cross rivers in the first place, or three routes to our destination instead of five? Probably not. We may have to seriously consider removing some bridges and closing some roads, but the more important lesson is to stop making the same mistake going forward. Stop creating a heavier and heavier burden for future taxpayers (which include ourselves).

Interestingly, the new concrete invented by Victor Li (still a few years from being used) will cut the cost of maintenance in half, but be much more expensive up front. This is the kind of thing we need to look at - paying more now to reduce future expenses, and if we can’t afford to do that we should probably wait - just as a family should wait until they are ready for the initial cost and ongoing expense of a new pet or boat.

Tags: concrete, expenses, future

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Economic Theories, Political Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.