American self-paid repairs road sued by government

American self-paid repairs road sued by government

        Frank Li, July 7, 2026

https://blog.creaders.net/user_blog_diary.php?did=NTU2NDI1 

This topic was inspired by the YouTube video April 2021: The US planned massive infrastructure investment in 10 years to surpass China: Is it a gimmick or real work? 

Look at the United States. Why does it continuously invest heavily in infrastructure, yet its infrastructure is becoming increasingly dilapidated and crumbling? Only the people of China can see the root of the problem; it is in order to attract continuous government investment, the infrastructure is deliberately kept in a state of disrepair.

In the United States; to deceive federal investment, Highways and Railways are not properly repaired by purposely wasting the invested money for continuously getting ferderal investment.

Americans and some Europeans have come to regard this anti-social-abnormal behavior as normal, taking it for granted.

Clearly, populist officials make livings by playing the democracy; for pleasing the public to gain votes, they are purpsefully supporting this behavior.

This is a late-stage cancer of democracies: viewing unearned gains as reasonable in accordance with human rights. Conversely, diligent work creates wealth are seen as slave labor, unreasonable against human rights.

Ultimately, the root cause lies in the low quality of the people in promoting antihuman behavior as human behavior. Such distortion of humanity has resulted in the inability to renovate America's infrastructure.

The viewer comments 

@bettychiu1 3 years ago (edited): The roads in my state are constantly under construction, yet they're never truly finished. They're often repaired for weeks before breaking down again. One resident secretly took materials to repair the uneven road in the middle of the night, but he got caught and sued by the state government for unauthorized road damage. Everyone knows that bad roads generate funding, politicians get kickbacks, manufacturers make money, and workers have jobs, so everyone has to endure the uneven roads indefinitely."

Why do Americans pay for their own road repairs?

First, look at the surreal, derailed railway of America, the beacon of freedom and democracy, where self-interest reigns supreme and individualism is paramount. The fact that if the train doesn't derail is a miracle.

 https://finance.sina.cn/2023-02-25/detail-imyhwxur1582204.d.html

On February 16, 2023, a BBC reporter reported, "Ohio train crash leaves small town fearful of toxic fumes and confused." A train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the small town of East Palestine, Ohio. The black smoke from the burning chemicals had a strong chemical odor. Subsequently, thousands of dead fish appeared in the stream. Nearby residents said their chickens died suddenly, their foxes panicked, and other pets fell ill. Residents complained of headaches, burning eyes, and sore throats.

https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-64659573

Look at those blackened train tank bombs. They are packed tightly together. They are filled with toxic, flammable and explosive chemicals. A train derailment would be fatal. If their own families live not far away who wold be not afraid? Democratic politicians don't care about human life; but waste money on indiscriminate bombing all over the world, blowing up other countries' railways and bridges, regardless of the lives of their own people. The Americans could only spend their own money to buy raw materials, stay up late at night, and repair the railway secretly.

Americans have suffered miserably from democratic politicians. Is the United States still a human governed country?

@meijuanfu6869 3 years ago (modified)

When I was studying in Texas, there was construction work near intersection 230 of Highway 35. The road widening started when I came here in 2015. Now in 2021, I have graduated with my Ph.D. and it has not been completed yet. The most important thing is that you can't see anyone working. You can't see it on working days, and you can't see it on holidays either. When we stopped on the roadside, there were no workers. It's just at the exit to the airport. In 10 years, a president will serve for 4 years and be re-elected for only 8 years. Once the election day comes, he will start making bad promises again, and then the new president will overturn the original policies as soon as he comes. Hasn;t this been the case in the United States for more than two hundred years?

@meijuanfu6869 3 years ago (edited)

My home is in a small town in Colorado, where the roads haven't been repaired for years. A short road, only a few dozen meters long, has hundreds of potholes of varying sizes. Workers come to repair it every year. Firstly, 3-4 surveyors, usually working 3-4 hours a day, complete the job in about two days. On the third day, two workers in a small asphalt truck haphazardly patch the potholes, typically repairing only a small section of road each year, about a few potholes the size of a washbasin. Even after the repairs are finished, many potholes remain unfilled. 

The work is completed in about an hour, and the remaining asphalt is carelessly discarded on the roadside, causing pedestrians to frequently trip. The workers don't even bother to add a little asphalt to the potholes next to the newly repaired road. They say their budget for this year is already used up, and the potholes next to them won't be repaired until next year.

@jennychen7511 3 years ago

I understand. Like in the UK, discussions about expanding Heathrow or Gatwick airport have been going on for over a decade, with no progress. In that time, several large airports in China have already been built—it's incomparable!

From the above comment, you might think of why the people trusted transportation —American Boeing aircraft manufacturer—has been ruined, and why warships need to be repaired in South Korean shipyards.

Think back: without Chinese laborers, there would be no transatlantic railroad or Canadian Pacific Railway. Today, without Chinese manufacturing, the world cannot survive.

In 2018, Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, pointed out in his book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap: The Washington, D.C. Metro's Silver Line was planned in 1968, officially approved in 2000, but construction didn't begin until 2009. The first phase was completed in 2014, taking 46 years from planning to completion, with only 5 of the planned 34 stations built. The professor lamented that the completion date of the second phase, connecting Dulles Airport, was even more uncertain.

The professor described another project: the small bridge spanning the Charles River between the Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, visible from his office window. In 2012, the Massachusetts state government announced plans to renovate the bridge, expecting it to take two years. However, it wasn't completed until 2017, exceeding the budget by three times.

In stark contrast, Professor Graham Allison described a much larger bridge in Beijing, China, which was renovated in just 43 hours. The professor remarked that the Chinese can now complete more projects in hours than Americans take years to finish.

Regarding this absurd behavior in the US, my American friend recounted how, due to regulations requiring backyard fencing, his neighbors were forced to request additional funding three times for their wooden fences, eventually reaching half the cost of their houses. Similar reports exist in Canada, with some even more outrageous cases of contractors damaging houses and then disappearing.

On May 7, 2024, an article titled "California's $1 Billion High-Speed ??Rail Viaduct Goes Viral" described how the California High Speed ?Rail Authority, after more than three years and $1 billion in investment, organized the construction of the 488-meter-long Fresno River Viaduct. Completed in 2018, it still stands alone on the frequently drying riverbed, with no sign of the railway construction connecting the two ends.

Imagine, if building a bridge costs $1 billion, can the entire railway be built?

Even Britain, with its emphasis on self-interested values, is no exception. On February 12, 2016, Professor Hulya Dagdeviren of the University of Hertfordshire published an article, "How did Britain fall out of love with privatization?", stating that a medical facility built by a British private company initially had a budget of ￡11 billion, but by the time of completion, the government was forced to actually spend ￡80 billion.

Canada, Britain's vassal state, is not immune either. Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier has long been exploited to the point of disappearing. In Canada, a stretch of four-lane city street several kilometers long requires extensive renovations and six months of waiting, a process the West proudly calls "Marktime"—making money while standing still.

Similarly, Germany, playing the self-interested card, is now being distorted by its chaotic political traffic lights, turning Germany into deindustrialized. Everyone knows Germany is a manufacturing powerhouse.

Can democratic countries continue to play the self-interested card like this? Therefore, I say that wealthy democracies that have made their fortunes through plunder have lost their foundation for survival and have begun a process of self-destruction.

@jordonhuang5676  3 years ago

I'm in New Zealand. In a neighborhood near my home, a traffic roundabout (a concrete disc about 10 meters in diameter) and the widening of a less than one-kilometer stretch of road in one direction (adding dozens of parking spaces on one side of the road) took about two years. During construction, all two lanes were merged into one, and one lane was narrowed, causing traffic jams for two and a half years. Less than six months after completion, the roundabout was demolished, and a new round of reconstruction began. Now there are daily traffic jams, and I don't know how long it will take to finish. I guess the infrastructure in the US isn't much better.

@manleungchu2358 3 years ago

I remember visiting several major American cities before. In comparison, Hong Kong used to seem very clean and advanced. But after visiting Shenzhen and Guangzhou in recent years, I immediately realized Hong Kong is old, chaotic, and backward. Overall, the US lags far behind Hong Kong, and Hong Kong lags far behind China!

@hongshorts2861 3 years ago (edited)

In the US, a small road takes a year to complete. In China, it's completed in two days. That speed is unbelievable… First of all, they have no concept of manpower or construction time! China's speed can only be described as "madman-like"! Not only is road construction slow in the US, but public service windows are also slow! Even the beaches, which aren't remote, are right next to main roads, and there's no cell phone signal! Besides the dollar's global hegemony, what else does the US have left?

@all-the-way-east 3 years ago

It's been five or six years since every county in Guizhou has been connected by expressway. Keep in mind that Guizhou's lowest elevation is only 147 meters, while its highest reaches 3900 meters. There are no large plains, it's all mountainous terrain, so building expressways is incredibly difficult. Everywhere you exit a tunnel, there's a bridge. 14 of the world's 20 highest bridges are in Guizhou; you can imagine the difficulty of their construction. In 2013, I drove from Shanghai back to my hometown in Guizhou before the expressway was open, but it opened the following year. As a Guizhou native, I feel extremely happy and satisfied.
@陈枫-r3e 3 years ago

Before coming to the US, I imagined it as paradise. After coming here, I realized China is paradise. Now I really regret it. This handsome young man speaks fluent Chinese. Can you tell us if you're Chinese or an American-born Chinese (ABC)? I'm really curious.

@pk96035407 3 years ago

There are countless ways for me to get from my home in Shenzhen to my home in Guangzhou. I drive back every week, and the route I take now is 148 kilometers long. This route has no traffic lights at all, which is really amazing. I've been very surprised by driving in Guangdong Province for the past ten years. Every year, several new expressways are opened, and with the addition of high-speed rail and other railways, a one-hour living circle has truly been created.