- The infrastructure spending burden is especially pronounced among the country’s lowest-income households. The CE’s lowest quintile—the bottom 20 percent of all consumer units—reported an annual income of $11,832, but they typically spent $6,040 across gas, electricity, telephones, water and sewer, and transportation services. That’s over 60 percent of all income on essential living expenses. Add the $6,331 spent on housing by this quintile and built environment costs actually exceed all income. No money left for food, no money left for health care, no money left for anything. It’s a frightening proposition for over 24 million households. And while the second-lowest income quintile faces a better situation, infrastructure plus housing spending still commands 58 percent of their income.
rthomas6:
A part of the problem is sprawl. We've spread out and built separate infrastructure for each little area. That means more infrastructure and less taxes to cover each part. Then we drive between these little areas, typically living in one and working in another one, and shopping in a third. And we have massive and relatively expensive infrastructure for cars to facilitate this way of life.
Transportation, utilities, and housing are all more affordable if you have more people living in a more self-contained community. If you do it right, most people don't even need to drive that often, so that cost goes down too.
Check out strongtowns.org
posted 2175 days ago