Seventy-six years after the WPA began, U.S. infrastructure crumbles

More than three quarters of a century ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that the “demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally it is the greatest menace to our social order.” He also insisted that he would “stand or fall” by his “refusal to accept as a necessary condition of our future a permanent army of unemployed.” On the contrary, he said, “we must make it a national principle that we will not tolerate a large army of unemployed and that we will arrange our national economy to end our present unemployment as soon as we can and then take wise measures against its return. I do not think it is the destiny of any American to remain permanently on relief rolls.”

Those most at fault for putting us into this acute economic crisis (as well as the chronic crisis that dates back decades) are again making big profits and big bonuses. Meanwhile, the beneficiaries of Citizens United are pouring their secret dough into ensuring that Congress is filled with men and women who can be counted on to push policies that do not just ignore the plight of the unemployed but also rub their noses in it. FDR must be doing 360s.

Isn’t it time we rebuilt our nation and put people back to work? Time for a new WPA?