How to pay for infrastructure

By Ed Mikula, North Las Vegas

Friday, April 28, 2017 | 2 a.m.

By the end of World War II, the U.S. had sold more than $185 billion ($2.5 trillion in today’s dollars) worth of war bonds to finance the war. War bonds were government-issued savings bonds that generated capital for that war and made citizens feel involved in the national effort.

Arguably, our neglected infrastructure is today’s shared national effort.

The population in 1945 was 139 million, and 85 million bought bonds. Today’s population is approximately 318 million and at an equivalent rate/ratio of purchase, infrastructure bonds could raise $5.7 trillion.

Indeed, a recent update by the American Society of Civil Engineers projects a shortfall for infrastructure of $700 billion between now and 2025, and a shortfall of about $2.6 trillion by 2040.

Call it what you will and update the “mechanics” (rate of return, etc.), but why not offer some sort of bond program again to rebuild America? We’d raise enough money to make our infrastructure second to none in a relatively short period of time, we’d put millions of Americans back to work and we’d all become the solution as opposed helping create the problem.