To Invest in Infrastructure, Invest in People

The new administration has signaled its intent to propose an infrastructure program. That is good. We need investment in our country’s infrastructure. Our roads and bridges are long overdue for repairs. We lag behind other countries in high-speed transit and the shift to renewable energy. We have far too many schools and hospitals that need updating. And too many students in small towns and inner cities have been set back by their lack of broadband, worsening the educational disparities that existed even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporters of a large infrastructure bill also point to the potential to create millions of jobs—a critical priority, given there are currently 9.6 million fewer jobs in our economy than there were a year ago. Jobs were also the focus of the 2009 infrastructure bill, passed at a time when the housing market had crumbled, the rust belt was in turmoil, and millions of manufacturing and construction workers were on the streets. But are the people who are out of work today the same ones ready and able to work as wind turbine technicians, cement masons, or fiber optic line workers?