Kids are sitting in front of fast food outlets trying to do their homework on their note books or lap tops because they have no access to the Internet at home. This has been a major issue during the pandemic because of school closures and children being forced to do full-time on-line learning. This is happening in the same country that just put another rover, fresh off its flawless landing, on the surface of Mars — an extraordinary engineering feat and once again proving that when it comes to space exploration, no one does it better than the U.S. Yet when it comes to maintaining its public infrastructure, the American Society of Civil Engineers earlier this month gave the country a C-minus for the overall quality of its infrastructure. Then there was Texas’s failure to properly weatherize and maintain power generation systems which led to the most recent massive power crisis and subsequent water crisis which lasted for weeks in some counties.
Take the American health care system which is among the most advanced in the world, but only for some. Remember that the U.S. is the only major industrialized country that doesn’t have a universal healthcare system. Instead, a significant proportion of the population lack sufficient health insurance and have to depend on publicly under-funded hospitals and clinics that in turn lack adequate resources to treat their patients. Even in good times the U.S. records higher mortality rates and earlier deaths than other countries, especially among Black, Latino or Native American citizens. Unfortunately, the pandemic highlighted this tragic situation whereby the U.S., accounting for just four percent of the world’s population, had 20 percent of worldwide coronavirus deaths. While, American scientists, laboratories and pharmaceutical companies helped in record time to develop effective vaccines, the country has consistently lagged behind other developed nations in the more elementary tasks of coronavirus testing and prevention.
The U.S. once was at the forefront of advances in green technologies, much like it had been in computer technologies. Unfortunately, the Trump administration ended American participation in the Paris Accord on Climate Change and set back American initiatives in tackling the causes of global climate change. Although the Biden administration has indicated that climate change is once again a priority issue on its agenda, it will take time to repair the damage inflicted by Trump on the Department of Environment and its programs related to air, water and soil quality. Instead, numerous federally protected lands were opened up to pipeline construction, mining and drilling by the private sector. The negative impact on valuable non-renewable resources will no doubt take time to be reversed, much to consternation of Americans.
If anything, the pandemic has drawn attention to the need for the U.S. to adequately invest in upgrading, maintaining and expanding its existing public infrastructure. This applies not only to energy sources, public roads and bridges, but also to Internet access and the public health care system. Failure to do so will only further lead to great inequities among Americans at the expense of their livelihoods and health and safety.
FROLITICKS 
Leave a comment