US infrastructure has been seen to be falling apart in many areas and in desperate need of trillions of investment to turn things around. To fix all of the dams, bridges, and roads etc, that are in grave disrepair, it's estimated that it could cost upwards of $4 trillion.

That's a lot of money that could go toward improving many services and venues etc. Meanwhile, the war on terror has allegedly cost the country $6 trillion. That's money that they've spent bombing countries and destroying infrastructure overseas while ignoring the quality of life back at home. A sad set of priorities isn't it?

Now that the roads in Michigan are in such desperate need of a facelift, lawmakers there are considering selling state assets to try and raise the funds.

They've proposed selling the Blue Water Bridge and have sought to assess the price of the bridge from the Department of Transportation so that they can begin soliciting bids. There is a great deal of outstanding debt associated with the bridge still, roughly $89 million which included a final payment that wasn't supposed to be made until 2037.

The move to sell the bridge comes only a few months after lawmakers in the region approved of more than $1 billion in extra spending for the 2019 year to go towards toxic clean-ups and fixing roads etc. At least $114 million was dedicated just to roads but obviously that's not enough. Maybe they need to find someone who knows how to better manage funds?

In the meantime, the bridge isn't the only thing they're thinking about selling, they are also looking to sell other state-owned assets too such as freeway welcome centers and even airports.

Other lawmakers are also considering a fuel tax increase of about 45 cents per gallon to try and raise the funds to fix the roads as well. But what happens when they sell off these bridges and airports, raise then spend those funds, and then other regions fall into similar disrepair, what will they sell then?

Just maybe, force isn't the best way to construct or maintain roads and overall transportation.

Maintaining roads is one of the most basic jobs that they've tasked themselves to do and they have failed at that objective and are now looking to outsource that responsibility and ownership of the project to private hands.

Pics:
pixabay