Great post but when you said:

"Should we be surprised that such a scenario has been allowed to arise in the first place? After all, when government entities disregard the care for public property in this way, they aren't the ones who bear any loss to their personal wealth."

I would take it one step further. Govt has no incentive to respect the dollar, our infrastructure or the future of our economy.

The only incentives are short term vote returns and spending today to prepare for 10 years from now is NEVER rewarded, so its never done.

Govts never have to savings, only more or less debt, so their policy rarely aids savers. 0% interest is one example, negative interest will be another example soon, just wait and see.