Infrastructure And How The West Was Lost

The failure, so far, of Western nations to launch bold new infrastructure ventures on the scale of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or even to renew and maintain the existing infrastructure, is not only due to a lack of imagination but also due to the fact that those nations are unable to appreciate the importance of infrastructure. It is worth noting that the economic priorities and financial systems in Western societies have evolved in such a way so as to limit the ability to finance long-term capital investment of both public and private sectors of the economy. The roots of this problem go deep, but they are traceable to the recent evolution of capitalism in Western societies from a system where finance was formerly viewed as a “means to an end” to one where it has become more of an end in itself. Infrastructure has become a casualty of market economies that often appear to reward “financial engineering” more than they do physical engineering and construction…