In today’s Freeman column, Richard Fulmer makes the timely observation that just because government spending projects are called “infrastructure” doesn’t mean that they are good uses of resources.
A point he doesn’t make is that, due to special interest laws like the Davis-Bacon Act (requiring that construction workers must be paid the “prevailing” wage rather than allowing competition to work), government infrastructure projects (even those that might actually make sense) cost more than they need to, thus diverting resources from other, potentially more valuable uses.
