Fighting to Replace America’s Water Pipes (opens in new tab)

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2009/3/30/the-cost-of-de...

In particular, the analysis considers whether the cost of a road along some properties will be repaid by tax on those properties. However, this ignores the 'network effect' present in society, and various other taxes that residents contribute to.

Residences don't provide property tax revenue in isolation - the residents also generate tax revenue in a variety of other ways that depend on transportation. For example, residents commute to work, and work for corporations that pay a high amount of property tax. It's commonly understood that commercial districts contribute far more tax than residential districts do. That's often why cities want to zone for it. But the two zones depend on each other. Neither works without the other.

Residents consume from various other businesses in the area where they live, and those businesses pay tax and have employees, and so on. Residents also generate income and pay income tax and sales tax. Residents who are connected via top-notch infrastructure generate value in inter-state, national, and even internationale commerce through their consumption of mail-ordered goods and use of Internet, phone, and cable TV.

There are certainly some rural areas where infrastructure might be a loss. I'm not saying that's not possible. Just saying this rationale and analysis isn't convincing.

It's also not necessarily a problem if individual small areas run at a loss, as long as larger society is willing to subsidize or pay for them. For example, imagine a small dense city like San Francisco that generates incredible wealth. Some people might commute to that area from nearby cities. Those cities and the transportation in between might not earn enough in tax revenue from local residents to pay for the infrastructure at the local level, but it may be the case that higher-level structures above the city such as counties, states, or the federal government receive enough tax revenue from the region that they're willing to pay for the transit. Those larger political structures can look at the big picture, like how transportation within the region is impacting the regional economy.

For example, the federal government recently gave a multi-hundred-million dollar grant to develop rail infrastructure between Seattle and Portland. Is that worth it? I have no idea. That seems like a high price to me to transfer a few hundred people per train trip. But the point is that the model works as long as society is willing to pay for this infrastructure. The articles haven't made the case that people can't or won't pay for it; just that in some very narrow analysis, properties don't pay for streets along the property. But roads are never useful in isolation - it's the network that matters.

You could argue that infrastructure could be more efficiently designed if people lived closer together, and needed less infrastructure. That's probably true. But that's not saying wealth is being destroyed. It's saying that society is willing to pay the cost necessary for the quality of life people want. (Assuming that we do have the money for it - haven't seen the argument that we don't) You could argue that wealth is being destroyed every time people buy "organic foods" because they're so much more expensive and wasteful, for example. It's the same idea.

The fundamental premise of the articles seems to be that growth of suburbia is unsustainable because suburbia does not generate enough property tax to pay for itself. An accurate analysis needs to consider all of the ways that those residents contribute to the tax base, as employees and customers, and add the sum of the effects up, before argue that it's legitimately wealth-destroying. One needs to consider the effect of infrastructure on tourism and the ability of an area to attract residents and businesses. You can't evaluate the cost/benefit of infrastructure merely by looking at the property tax revenue of properties adjoining it.

With regards to water pipes. I don't care how my water is delivered. What I care about is that it is proven safe, durable, and the least expensive solution meeting those requirements is used. There is no reason that the Federal Government or a coalition of states and cities cannot formulate a set or rules governing the use of each type.

While there are concerns about poisons leaking into some types of pipes more attention needs to be focused on getting those poisons out of the ground or routing around them. So perhaps using plastic where its known safe to keep costs down and resorting to more expensive solutions when clean up options fail or are exorbitant in costs

Do you really believe the government is going to spend $300b, and no company is going to fight over the allocation of funds?

To your point though, have you seen any evidence that private companies are better or more cost effective at providing or maintaining water and sewage infrastructure?

* Sewer & water can be done in a piecemeal fashion, whereas fiber requires complicated & precise connections to make work. Not to mention, needs connection to the electrical grid.

* Sewer & water pipes are typically much deeper underground, not necessary for fiber which doesn't freeze.

* Running fiber along a pipe would be difficult, at best. Typically an underground pneumatic pipe trenching tool pulls flexible copper pipe behind it, for water or gas. Pulling fiber along with it on the outside gets complicated or requires some new type of pipe.

Even just laying conduit (layer 0?) would be an amazing public service.

I think the majority of people agrees there needs to be changes in things... but putting "government" in charge of the backbone of the internet? Would definitely not a change for the better.

Personally... I think there should be one of two rules: Companies can't own content AND infrastructure (IE: Comcast)... or a higher cost (taxes? fees?) for companies that do and/or don't have reasonable competition.

The problem is that taxes have been cut and costs like pensions have gone up (both in absolute terms from things like favorable contracts and life expectancy and in relative terms because of the tax cuts).

    The prices have skyrocketed due to regulation 
    and now the government can't pay for all that 
    regulated work.

And those 500 year old wood pipes may still work, but they probably leak like sieves. NYC, for instance, loses billions of gallons a year to leaks in the pair of hundred year old water tunnels it can't afford to shut down for repair, and more from leaks in iron water mains all over the city.

The US northeast arguably can afford to waste that much water. Many parts of the world can't.