{"id":265724,"date":"2023-03-01T08:38:21","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T08:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=265724"},"modified":"2023-03-03T08:19:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T08:19:09","slug":"america-lost-the-hardworking-men-who-held-her-together-and-now-shes-crumbling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=265724","title":{"rendered":"America Lost the Hardworking Men Who Held Her Together, and Now She\u2019s Crumbling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Revolver — Feb 22, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Did you hear? South Africa can\u2019t keep the lights on\u2026 again.<\/p>\n

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Who could have imagined this, in a country where, until last November, the top electrical utility was legally required<\/a> to pick suppliers based on the race of their owners?<\/p>\n

But surely America is better, at least?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not gonna sugar coat it\u2014time to say what most of us already know in our bones. It\u2019s not just you: big power outages really are a lot more frequent than they were a couple decades ago.<\/p>\n

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The chart above is only half the story, too. Overall, major power outages are way up<\/a> since the 1980s.<\/p>\n

American aircraft keep nearly running into<\/a> each other, while scheduled flights are canceled at rates far above<\/a> the pre-Covid norm, even when there are no weather reasons for it at all. From 1980 to 2015, violations of the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act more than doubled<\/a>. In San Francisco last summer, the on-time rate for BART trains dropped to less than two-thirds<\/a>, putting BART in its worst situation in decades (hope their $190k\/year senior social justice manager<\/a> has some ideas!).<\/p>\n

Oh, and there\u2019s the whole freight train derailment thing. You probably saw something in the news about that.<\/p>\n

Before our eyes, Revolver\u2019s warning<\/a> of two years ago is coming to pass.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the years to come, American infrastructure will fail more and more often, as America becomes less capable of maintaining the core elements of a First World country.<\/p>\n

Why would America become less First World? That\u2019s a simple question to answer: Because America is making itself less First World.<\/p>\n

Read the Rest:<\/strong> Texas\u2019s Power Grid Disaster Is Only the Beginning<\/a><\/p>\n

Americans have gotten used to hearing complaints about the country\u2019s \u201cfailing infrastructure.\u201d This has typically centered on the most straightforward, easily understood infrastructure: Bridges, highways, subway tunnels and the like. And, yeah, sometimes there\u2019s a lot to be desired there.<\/p>\n

This isn’t a railway in a Third World County<\/p>\n

This is in Ohio pic.twitter.com\/VIYykDgwcJ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jack Posobiec \uf1fa\uf1f8 (@JackPosobiec) February 16, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

But infrastructure isn\u2019t just the existence of physical assets. It\u2019s also how well they are used: How quickly is damage fixed? How well-made are they in the first place? How well do they avoid accidents or systematic screw-ups?<\/p>\n

At its bedrock, infrastructure is substantially just people:\u00a0<\/em>a population of workers with the expertise and experience to keep a complex system functional, reliable, and accident-free. Decline in this infrastructure \u2014 the human infrastructure \u2014 may be papered over with improved technology and automation. But when problems do arise, it is impossible to miss the decay. In a recent Twitter thread, venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan noted the ultimately human roots of America\u2019s declining infrastructure:<\/p>\n

One answer is that the only type of maintenance that\u2019s even semi-prestigious in American society is software maintenance.<\/p>\n

That is, it’s not prestigious to be plumber, mechanic, or electrician.<\/p>\n

You can make money, but it doesn’t have cultural cachet.<\/p>\n

And so maintenance suffers.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Balaji (@balajis) February 14, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

Two years ago, when Texas practically collapsed after a severe but hardly insurmountable ice storm, we mentioned<\/a> the non-physical dimension of infrastructure in the United States:<\/p>\n

But infrastructure isn\u2019t just about allocating enough funding. It\u2019s about people. The quality of a country\u2019s broad-based infrastructure is heavily linked to the skills of its common blue-collar workers and local bureaucrats. When these groups are more capable, everything works a little bit better in a country. They cut fewer corners when building new infrastructure, and are more diligent in maintaining it. They work more diligently and efficiently. They are more likely to use the right materials. They avoid preventable errors.<\/p>\n

Read the rest\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

For decades, local planners and technicians and civil engineers were often unsung heroes of American life. Even as American family life frayed, industry moved abroad, and crime soared, they built and maintained the amenities that are synonymous with the First World.<\/p>\n

But the Heroic Age of Americans who actually\u00a0built\u00a0<\/em>infrastructure is long past. The Silver Age of those who could at least maintain it is disappearing as well, like the Elves departing Middle-Earth. The average American utility worker is nearly fifty years old. In the next ten years as many as fifty percent<\/a> of these workers will retire. There are plenty of critiques to be made of elderly workers \u2014 we published one just the other day! \u2014 but if there is any industry where experience is truly invaluable, it is in maintaining and managing the enormously complex systems that America\u2019s cities and states use to generate power, supply water, move people, and generally keep everything functioning. These workers started their careers in a very different America: one with a higher-quality working class, which felt far less shame about hiring based on knowledge and ability, even if it produced a workforce that was \u201ctoo white\u201d or \u201ctoo male\u201d or too anything. Now, they are passing the baton to a population with different skills and very different values. Is anybody confident we\u2019ll be able to manage the handoff?<\/p>\n

Early signs aren\u2019t promising. When Colonial Pipeline suffered a major outage due to a cyberattack, the company\u2019s CEO had to admit that the company was essentially incapable of operating its pipelines manually, not because it was impossible, but because everyone with the knowledge to do so was retired or dead.<\/p>\n

Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount says workers who historically operated pipelines and other infrastructure manually have retired. pic.twitter.com\/M2izZWFDCP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 8, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n

Right before our eyes, America is losing that ability to sustain the complex systems that are the markers of modern civilization. Even more appalling, this transformation is a choice.<\/p>\n

Remember that trillion dollar infrastructure bill Biden passed? Did you know that construction companies who want access to any of that gigantic pile of federal dollars need to implement major affirmative action policies<\/a> to favor people based on race and sex? And did you know that if a company is getting a government contract on even\u00a0one\u00a0<\/em>project, they need to practice affirmative action on\u00a0everything<\/em>? Law firm Jackson Lewis explains:<\/a><\/p>\n

For women, the participation goal is 6.9%, meaning we are going to strive to make 6.9% of the total hours worked on each and every project, be performed by women. For minorities, we have a different goal, percentage goal, it may be 7%, even up to 23% or more, and that\u2019s based on each individual geographic region in which you\u2019re performing the project.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

For our individuals with disabilities, it is a utilization goal under that Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, we\u2019re trying to hit 7% of our workforce in each trade, identify as having a disability. And that number isn\u2019t pulled out of thin air. It really is an estimate of the population of the United States that identifies as having a disability.<\/p>\n

Is it any surprise that while the East Palestine train derailment mess was unfolding,\u00a0 Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was off giving a speech about the need to make construction work less white?<\/p>\n

Buttigieg made no mention of the Ohio train derailment while speaking at a conference this morning but did find the time to say that there are too many white people who work construction. pic.twitter.com\/q4WNcq10h9<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 13, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

When you see stories about American planes nearly crashing into each other, do you feel more or less confident when you also see stories about the pressing need to make pilots more diverse?<\/p>\n

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Try to imagine if we ever would have gotten to the moon with this set of twisted priorities. Speaking of which, what better example of the decline in human capital and infrastructure than our inability to repeat the moon missions we achieved over a half century ago with pre-pocket calculator technology?<\/p>\n

This was 50 years ago, a feat achieved with pre-pocket calculator technology, that no advanced nation has been able to replicate since pic.twitter.com\/59kRRKVFil<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Darren J. Beattie \uf310 (@DarrenJBeattie) December 20, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh yeah, and we managed to \u201close\u201d the technology too:<\/p>\n