What Engineers Mean When They Talk About Infrastructure Spending

Slate has a commentary from the American Society of Civil Engineers on the sorry state of U.S. infrastructure. The ASCE is one of my favorite things as a policy journalist, because I love infrastructure -- my father was, after all, the head of a trade association for the heavy construction industry. Nothing fills my heart with quite the same joy as huge pieces of heavy equipment digging their sharp teeth into the earth.

On the other hand, a bit of caution is warranted when reading these reports. The first thing to remember is that as much as we all love engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers is not a disinterested party when it comes to analyzing how much infrastructure spending the U.S. needs. If the U.S. undertakes a large number of new civil engineering projects, the first people to benefit will be ... yes, that's right, the civil engineers who design them and oversee their construction. To be sure, they will not be the only people who benefit, but few other groups can be as reliably assured of a paycheck boost from the soaring U.S. need for people who can make a bridge that won't fall down.