I could write 10,000 words about your discussion and so I would say: jolly good work. I'll just pick one small point -that due to education focusing mainly on creating workers for corporate shareholder profits in the last 60 years Americans were not learning basic life skills such as, wait for it... maintaining their own residences. There's a wide disparity in the knowledge of keeping up real property assets including the land, the neighborhood, the access egress and and we think it's the Water Department downtown that is going to just solve every problem without really understanding any of the processes. We don't do this well every where around the United States. Nor do we have practical skills in managing budgets or dealing with institutional burdens such as taxation, filing, Contracts, banking arrangements and borrowing. Unless we make education practical and broadly-based then you can't expect anyone to notice a bridge is falling down until it does.
Secondly, everything has been monetized that has really worked as noted. And also, sadly, there is a lack of faith in many communities over the long-term expensive Highway and infrastructure projects that go on for years and years and are not completed timely or on budget and are not even addressing what happened in the ensuing decades. There is a real distrust of what I would call the nepotism of Municipal contracts. You don't want to invest in discuss or plan something that you feel is always out of your direct control and also commit Decades of your taxes to it. Instead you see a lot of small GO bonds doing local things that are a Band-Aid and not a solution.
Thanks for the amazing roll out of information. HJM
Rich really an excellent episode. I learned a bit and it was wide ranging and extremely positive. Well done mate.
I could write 10,000 words about your discussion and so I would say: jolly good work. I'll just pick one small point -that due to education focusing mainly on creating workers for corporate shareholder profits in the last 60 years Americans were not learning basic life skills such as, wait for it... maintaining their own residences. There's a wide disparity in the knowledge of keeping up real property assets including the land, the neighborhood, the access egress and and we think it's the Water Department downtown that is going to just solve every problem without really understanding any of the processes. We don't do this well every where around the United States. Nor do we have practical skills in managing budgets or dealing with institutional burdens such as taxation, filing, Contracts, banking arrangements and borrowing. Unless we make education practical and broadly-based then you can't expect anyone to notice a bridge is falling down until it does.
Secondly, everything has been monetized that has really worked as noted. And also, sadly, there is a lack of faith in many communities over the long-term expensive Highway and infrastructure projects that go on for years and years and are not completed timely or on budget and are not even addressing what happened in the ensuing decades. There is a real distrust of what I would call the nepotism of Municipal contracts. You don't want to invest in discuss or plan something that you feel is always out of your direct control and also commit Decades of your taxes to it. Instead you see a lot of small GO bonds doing local things that are a Band-Aid and not a solution.
Thanks for the amazing roll out of information. HJM