Great Ideas: What IS Infrastructure? And When Should the Federal Government Invest in It‪?‬

What does it mean to invest in infrastructure? President Biden has proposed a multi trillion dollar bill that has prompted a lot of questions that are surprisingly basic…and yet surprisingly hard to answer. What is an economic investment? What is infrastructure? And what is the role of government to invest in the kinds of things that could help us in the future?

Tori Gorman is the Policy Director for The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public about the relationship between how the federal government spends money and the consequences for the future.  She says it’s time to update how we think about infrastructure, and start thinking in terms of investments that will make our economy and our workers more productive in the future. That doesn’t mean she thinks all of President Biden’s infrastructure bill qualifies though…or is even a good idea.