Let the Rich Build Bridges. No, Real Bridges
Ok maybe this is a stretch, but how about if just a portion of the 400 richest Americans chipped in and donated to build us new bridges, highways and subway tunnels?
In a WSJ story yesterday, Charles Landow and Courtney Lobel put forth exactly this idea, declaring that since there is a rich tradition of wealthy people donating wings to hospitals and buildings on college campuses, why not extend this to much needed public works?
Of course, they could name said bridges and tunnels after themselves…just like Steve Schwartzman, (who earned a cool BILLION a year a few years ago) did when he gaves $100 million to the NYC public library. That would be the new name for the main branch…the Schwartzman branch. We really need help with our bridges, say civil engineers, so why not the Schwartzman Memorial Bridge over the Connecticut River?
In Ottoman era Turkey, the society was faced with some of the same needs as us, and more than 35,000 private foundations, called Vakif, stepped up with the dough. They helped build water systems, schools, hospitals and bridges. The tradition continues today, the foundations build them and then they transfer the assets over to the government.
The authors suggest that allowing the very rich to help build our public works would be a good idea in this time when anti-Wall Street sentiment is on the rise. It will take some of the sting out of being a member of the top 1 percen
October 18, 2011 @ 1:58 pm
Rich Romans were expected to build baths and temples and amphitheaters.
October 19, 2011 @ 3:20 pm
Good point, Stephen. Romans also had private citizens handle stuff like tax collections and military supply. Not sure about roads, bridges and aqueducts…
Anyway, interesting suggestion, Max, thanks for putting it out there. Those much-vaunted Job Creators would certainly get a chance to use their tax savings (and remarkable income growth) of the last decade or so to actually *create jobs.* But with the libertarian pendulum swing back to the 1920s these days, do you think these philanthropic one-percenters might be inclined to keep these assets in private hands? There’s been a manic rush to sell off public assets, e.g., municipal utilities, state-owned power generation (Wisconsin), airports, real estate (which can then be lea$ed back), etc., for short-term debt relief. Oh, and cost reductions resulting from the efficiencies of corporate management. The Invisible Hand of the Market doesn’t always bring efficiencies or savings, though. When Chicago’s parking meters were sold to a company majority owned by Dubai for $1.2b a monopoly resulted, with a coincidental 1600% increase in parking fees. Just thinking…