Changing times

When the U.S. came out of World War II we were the "ONLY Large Country left standing" with our infrastructure still intact. In other words our country hadn't been bombed almost out of existence like London and much of Europe and Japan had. So, because of our existing intact infrastructure we loaned money to Europe and Japan and England to rebuild. The interest they repaid us made us rich and all the goods they all bought from us made us the richest nation on earth after World War II. This condition stayed this way until "the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973:

 

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   1973 oil crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis‎

   Jump to Arab oil embargo - [edit]. On October 16, 1973, OPEC announced a decision to raise the posted price of oil by 70%, to $5.11 a barrel.
   

   ‎Background - ‎Arab oil embargo - ‎Price controls and rationing

   As a result of the Viet Nam War and the Arab Oil Embargo America ceased to be as rich as it was from about 1950 until 1973. Around 1980 I was worried that the U.S. economic system was going to collapse just like many others my age at that time. However, I was wrong because I hadn't understood how much the rest of the world needed the U.S. to be there for them. So, they loaned us money to keep going starting during the 1980s. So, the problem I saw was solved by other countries loaning us money then.

   However, another problem began to arise. Our labor costs combined with material costs began to rise out of site to the point now where we literally cannot afford to fix our infrastructure. There is no way to hire people at the price per hour or at the present materials cost for us to replace bridges or water mains or gas mains or other infrastructure. It simply CANNOT be done at present prices. We are not as rich as we once were.

   Unless we do it through donations both of materials and of labor we are OVER AS  NATION and all our infrastructure will quickly fall into disrepair.

   However, there is another way to look at this. If we see this as a way to change from Old types of infrastructure to "New Types of Infrastructure" then this could be a good thing.

   For example, if we no longer have to put millions of miles of copper wire on telephone poles to make phone calls (cell phones), then we only need microwave towers or even satellites for these cell phones. This reduces infrastructure by billions of dollars right there.

   Second, Bridges are sort of a problem because they rust over 30 to 50 years and depending upon the moisture where they are need to be painted quite frequently to prevent rust and disrepair. I don't really have a solution to bridges unless it is smaller lighter cars and possibly bridges made out of a combination of plastic that can bend some and yet be as strong as steel(like when it stops bullets) like kevlar. However, I think this needs oil to make which becomes another sort of problem entirely. So, a bridge made out of something like Kevlar might still be cost preventative or impractical still in other ways. And bridges cannot be made out of cement beyond a certain length because of weight problems outside of cement bases into rivers and other waters like seas and oceans and stuff like that. But if there was a way to either build bridges out of things that don't rust or need to be painted this could be a start right there.

   
   

   The problem of most infrastructure like bridges and water mains and gas lines is that they also only last about 50 years at the maximum. This is why you are seeing so many gas mains explode around the country because they are all wearing out now. You likely are going to see many many more deaths because of this too in older infrastructure around the country because we just can't afford to fix them at present material or labor costs.

   
   

   So, building things that will last 100 or even 200 years becomes a necessity at this point. So, 50 years now just isn't enough. Efficient designs lasting 100 to 200 years must become a priority if we are going to stay at the present or higher level of labor and material costs. Otherwise, our whole infrastructure is just going to collapse in gas explosions, water main breaks, bridges collapsing etc. over the next 20 to 50 years or so.

   
   

   Only by thinking in terms of long term efficiency can we survive with our infrastructure with such high labor and material costs as a country.