Tuesday, March 01, 2011

When the Hoover Dies

What will happen when California can no longer rely on the Hoover Dam? How quickly will our standard of life fall when severe rationing/rolling blackouts cripple the state's economy? Do we have the ability anymore to undertake so massive a project? Will we ever be able to create work on such a scale again? Or are we in imperial decline where we have lost both the will and the knowledge to achieve as the generations that preceded us?

The last great leap in infrastructure followed the Great Depression. We have been through a long economic crisis and infrastructure improvement has been a talking point, but a Hoover Dam-type project is out of the question. We can't even agree on high-speed rail. The political discourse is almost totally irrational and preoccupied with perception. Our bridges are failing. Our oil is limited. Our supposed leaders sold their votes to their party bosses and corporate donors long ago.