WASHINGTON — The modern American economy was shaped by four major infrastructure initiatives, each of which was too big for the private sector to take on alone: the continent-wide railroad network, the interstate highways, the air traffic control system, and the Internet.
The best way to regain that edge is to prioritize our public investments in a forward-looking manner, one that engages people and places across the U.S. in the processes that generate new ideas and breakthrough products. Policy makers could also work to improve transportation links between the rest of the country and these hubs of economic activity. But while high-speed trains work well in China and Europe, efforts to deploy them in the United States have gone precisely nowhere in recent decades. Expanding air routes could help some places, but the most dynamic cities already have crowded air space and a great deal of noise pollution.
They include places like Rochester, N.Y., ; Ames, Iowa ; Huntsville, Ala., ; Orlando, Fla., ; and Baton Rouge, La.,. Spillover effects Creating new basic knowledge involves spillover effects: because no one person or company can capture the full benefits, all private-sector entities will tend to underinvest. Broader social benefits can be promoted by local and state government, and there is some terrific work underway, including in the cities mentioned above.
I thought the economy was doing great.
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Source: TheEconomist - 🏆 6. / 92 Read more »