• @pingveno
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    22 years ago

    This article goes into more depth on the actual response and the underlying causes. Mississippi is the poorest state in the US and there has been chronic underfunding of maintenance even in well off areas. Flint and Jackson are just the start of a future of deferred maintenance coming home to roost. There is also a problem around the population being simply too spread out, which substantially increases infrastructure costs per person.

    • @SineNomineAnonymousOPM
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      12 years ago

      Pretty good article but how spread a population is shouldn’t really matter. You don’t put a price on people. You also invest in public infrastructures because they’re necessary. Especially when you can just shell out a trillion a year on weapons.

      • @pingveno
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        2 years ago

        The problem is that at a certain low density, things like water/sewer systems and roads cannot be maintained. There simply isn’t enough of a tax base compared to the amount of infrastructure needed. The book Strong Towns goes over the idea. The suburb development pattern has the US on borrowed time for affording necessary maintenance. Not even eliminating the armed forces completely could avert that problem.