The Daily Escape:
West Cornwall Covered Bridge, West Cornwall, CT – photo by Juergen Roth Photography. The 172â bridge spans the Housatonic River.
America runs on deferred maintenance. We wonât do a thing today that can be put off for another day, another year, or several years. The ongoing disaster of the collapsed condo at Champlain Towers South in Florida is a perfect metaphor for America. A quick look at some details is instructive.
The NYT had a story about the conflicts among residents and the Champlain Towers South condo board. A report indicated that major repairs were needed to maintain the structural integrity of the building. But the repairs werenât popular with the residents: (brackets by Wrongo)
âSteve Rosenthal, 72, a restaurant advertising executive, went to the gym in the building nearly every day. Afterward, he would stop at the pool, where he could see a crack on a third-floor balcony that he described as âatrocious.â But he called the $135,000 assessment [to fix the problems] on his condo, a corner unit with double balconies, a âsecond mortgageâ.
âItâs an upscale building, but itâs not the Ritz or the Four Seasons….The people that live [here]…arenât Rockefellers or Rothschilds. Weâre upper middle class, I guess, and a lot of us are retiredâ….When a neighbor knocked on his door, 705, with a petition against the assessment, Mr. Rosenthal signed it. The first payment was due on July 1.â
BTW, Rosenthal survived the condo collapse. He was rescued from the intact part of the collapsed building, and heâs staying in a Residence Inn a few blocks away. Worse, Rosenthal has filed a lawsuit against the condo board for negligence and against the property for shoddy construction!
America is filled with assholes like Rosenthal. Theyâve taken over â they dominate our politics (Iâm talking to you Mitch). They dole out promotions to other assholes. They punish anyone who tries to do the right thing. They tell us how to vote, and who to love. (Hat tip: Jessica Wildfire)
Their attitude that âThis seems bad, but if I have to pay to fix it, count me outâ is the position of many, many Americans, regardless of what kind of deferred maintenance is being considered. Fixing our roads? Sorry, no gas tax increases. Better school buildings? Property taxes are too damn high. Better Internet? Why? Better health insurance? Socialism!
DC politics is infested with a âwe canât afford thisâ knee-jerk reaction whenever the subject of dealing with Americaâs deferred maintenance is on the table. And of course, that’s the thinking that deferred the maintenance in the first place.
Itâs particularly bad when the subject is how to deal with climate change. What incentives are there to alter behavior to prevent change that will have most of its effects after 2050? The answer is none, except for an intangible feeling that youâve done the right thing for posterity.
Current stakeholders (regardless of whether they have a stake in a property, a city, or the entire country), willingly defer maintenance to the next generation of stakeholders, when it will be much, much more expensive. Eventually, the problem canât be remedied. Like In the Florida condo, thatâs when things start collapsing, and people start dying.
Perhaps someone should have said to the condo residents: âYou can probably play Russian roulette without dying, but do you really like your odds?â
There was a 1981 ad by Fram Oil Filters  that had the tag line: âpay me now or, pay me later.â Imagine, accountability and wisdom brought to you by Madison Avenue! When we move from car maintenance to the country, the answer is youâll pay WAY more later. Weâve been blowing off serious repair and replacement of our infrastructure for decades.
Weâve blown off making sure that all Americans have safe bridges and roads.
Weâve blown off making sure that all Americans have basic health insurance.
Weâve blown off immigration reform.
Weâve blown off gun sanity.
Weâre blowing off moving from fossil fuels to renewables.
Do you see the parallel in how we respond to these issues? First, thereâs a warning, then thereâs evidence, followed by denial, delay, and ultimately, disaster. Thereâs no problem, if there is a problem, itâs too expensive to fix. Maybe we can fix it in a few years, eventually followed by incalculable cost and misery.
Weâre the only rich country that kicks the can down the road on anything thatâs politically difficult. You know thatâs true if youâve been to an airport in China or Europe. If youâve taken public transit in Europe or Hong Kong. If youâve seen the ports in Rotterdam or in Asia.
Time to kill all the assholes.