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> Why is that an okay situation to be in?

Because the cost to not be in it is enormous.




Enormous compared to what? We spend 3.2 trillion a year on Medicare, which is 9.9K a person [1]. Imagine if just 1K per person per year (300B) was spent on infrastructure every year to make mass evacuations over a few days possible. Imagine how great normal day to day travel would be once that is in place, city by city.

[1] https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/sta...


> Enormous compared to what?

Enormous compared to the value provided.

> We spend 3.2 trillion a year on Medicare

No, we don't. As your own source says, it is only $646 billion on Medicare, and $3.2 trillion a year in total combined public and private healthcare expenditures.

> Imagine if just 1K per person per year (300B) was spent on infrastructure every year to make mass evacuations over a few days possible.

Then it still probably wouldn't be enough, and we'd get a lot more value for nearly doubling infrastructure spending [0] if we spent it on something else.

[0] $416 billion/year in 2014, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52463




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