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Community resources are often taken for granted.
It’s so unevenly distributed that you only miss it once it’s gone. What cannot be seen is easily ignored.
I was shocked to see a billboard in Connecticut with the names of dozens of highway workers killed in on-the-job accidents. Too often we praise mob agitators and innovators without acknowledging the investment and effort that goes into keeping things working.
But everything we’ve built is built on community commitment to infrastructure.
Fortunately, you have access to things like:
- GPS on countless devices
- The team that fixed the pothole in my street
- A global, coordinated effort to repair the ozone layer
- State park coordinated efforts to open yesterday for Nordic skate skiing
- clean water coming out of the faucet
- City system that eliminates the need to pay bribes
- Federal packaging law dramatically improves food safety and purity
- A coordinated response to a global pandemic
- Air travel is consistently safer and more reliable than cars
- Get electricity when you need it, at an incredibly low cost.
- Ambulance available when needed
- Reasonably efficient stop lights and traffic system
- Internet Backbone provided this post
- weather forecast
- A seemingly magical way to make waste disappear without spreading disease
- Ability to ask librarians for help and find almost any book
Few people in the world have such access to these resources. One of the untold stories of the last century is the spread of civil institutions to more people.
A combination of aging systems, reduced community spending, and disruptions caused by climate change could create holes in this infrastructure that cannot be easily repaired.
Next time you see an infrastructure worker, give them a hug.
Check out Deb Chachra’s great new book on infrastructure.
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