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Three Infrastructure Plans: An Analysis

Abstract:

Infrastructure is America is in a dire state. In 2017, The American Society of Civil

Engineers gave American infrastructure a D+ rating on an A to F grading scale with an especially

low rating in transits. Many politicians have proposed spending bill to address this issue,

however, the abilities of such a plan to create jobs has been disputed by many politicians. This

report examines the potential of three different perspectives on the American Infrastructure

problem, the Democrats, the Republicans, and Trumps, and look specifically at their ability to

create a significant number of engineering jobs. Through research and study, the Democrats

plan appears to produce the most engineering jobs.

Methods:

So how can one determine which infrastructure plan is the best for producing engineering

jobs? This research report will be presented as follows. First, a way of determining a significant

number of engineering jobs will be determined. Secondly, background will be given on past

American infrastructure projects and their job creating capabilities, and also provide information

on the modern plans. Fourthly these plans will be compared to one another. Lastly, a conclusion

will be made about which plan is the best in producing engineering jobs.

First, a way of determining a significant number of engineering jobs will be stated.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2014, there were approximately two and a
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quarter million engineering jobs in the United States. Although this may sound like a large

number, there are currently three hundred and twenty five million Americans according to the

U.S. Census. For the purposes of this paper, we will assume that a significant change in the

number of jobs is equivalent to having at least a one percent increase in engineering jobs. By

simple calculations, this would show that there would need to be at least twenty-two thousand

and four hundred new engineering jobs in order to have a significant impact.

Background

The first major infrastructure project of American history was the foundation of the

Civilian Conservation Corps. during the Great Depression. As stated in An Overview of the

Civilian Conservation Corps., the Civilian Conservation Corps. was founded in 1933 by

President Franklin D. Roosevelt because many Americans were without jobs due to the Great

Depression [134]. This organization would put these men to work on public projects such as

laying roads and constructing telephone lines [134]. While there are no distinct numbers which

state how many engineering jobs were created, CCCLegacy.org reports that there were

approximately six hundred thousand officers, supervisors, education advisors and

administrators working for the Civilian Conservation Corps. In this context, it is fair to say that

many of the supervisors and administrators are in fact engineers. For there to have been a

significant number of engineering jobs created, only slightly less than four percent of these jobs
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would have had to have been engineers. Although one cannot know for sure, one can reasonably

say that a significant number of engineering jobs were created. Although the circumstances

surrounding this example are very different from our modern day and age, it does prove that the

government has the capacity to create a significant number of engineering jobs. However,

although it is possible, it is not necessarily plausible. The Civilian Conservation Corps. was

created specifically to create jobs. A modern infrastructure project would likely focus more on

creating new infrastructure than creating new jobs.

If you fast forward thirty years, you arrive at the next large-scale American infrastructure

project, the public interstate system. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the

Federal Aid Highway Act which authorized twenty-six billion dollars, or about two hundred and

thirty billion dollars in todays money, of public funds to be spent on creating a U.S. roadway

system, according to History.com. Like in the previous example, one cannot be precisely sure

about how many engineering jobs were created by Eisenhower, it is plausible to say that through

the he did create a significant number of jobs with the Federal Aid Highway Act. Over the

course of Eisenhowers presidency, he created approximately three million jobs. For him to have

created a significant number of engineering jobs, approximately three-quarters of a percent of the

jobs he created must have been engineering jobs. Although one cannot be entirely sure, it is

reasonable to believe that he created a significant number of engineering jobs using public funds.

Using data from past American history, it is reasonable to state that private funds can be used to

create a significant number of engineering jobs.

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The most unique aspect of Donald Trumps infrastructure plan is that it utilizes both

public and private funds to restore American infrastructure. According to Forbes, Trump has

proposed one hundred and forty billion dollars in infrastructure spending. Approximately forty-

five percent of this investment will be placed in the railway system, and both roadways and

energy will receive fifteen percent of this budget apiece. However, Trumps infrastructure plan

does not stop there. According CNBC, Trumps infrastructure plan also will rely on private

funding, through tax cuts for companies that assist with the construction. Overall, estimates

show that, as Time Magazine calls it, Trumps public-private partnership plan should total

approximately one trillion dollars being put into infrastructure.

The Democrats plan involves solely public funding. According to The Washington Post,

their plan consists of spending approximately one trillion dollars to improve Americas

infrastructure. Fox News reports that about two hundred and ten billion of these dollars will go

to administering repairs on public roadways and bridges, and another one hundred and eighty

million dollars will be used to upgrade American bus and railway systems.

Lastly, the Republicans plan for infrastructure spending is that there should not be any.

They have two primary reasons for this position. First, according to The Washington Post,

Republicans are wary of any large scale spending because the United States has a national debt

of approximately twenty trillion dollars and do not wish greatly increase it. Secondly, they

believe that infrastructure spending creates little to no long-term economic growth, as reported

by Politico.
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Comparison

Trumps plan does have many potential benefits and drawbacks to it. According to

Mason B. Williams of the The Atlantic, private infrastructure projects tend to be of better quality

than publicly funded ones, as private enterprises are eager to prove their superiority in managing

projects over the government. However, one of the major concerns that Cory Schouten of CBS

News voices is that of profit. Businesses tend to invest where there is profit to be made, which

means that projects that make good money will be the only ones undertaken, regardless of where

the actual needs lie. This also means that certain areas which are less profitable such as water

and sewage, will not receive as much of a private investment as highly profitable enterprises

such as roadways and bridges.

The benefits of the Democrats plan are based upon the concerns over Trumps plan.

Unlike Trumps plan, which follows the profit, the Democrats plan would be able to repair the

infrastructure where it is most needed. However, this plans drawbacks directly stem from the

advantages of Donald Trumps plan. This plan would likely be of poorer quality and not last as

long.

The biggest benefit to the Republicans stance is that the government save billions of

dollars of government spending. However, this amazing upside comes with the enormous

downside that no infrastructure gets repaired or built.

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Analysis

In the course of this paper, other, more modern studies will also be examined. The first

of these will be examined is a 2014 study conducted by Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy

Institute. This study uses three different scenarios to demonstrate job production: where thirty

billion dollars would be spent annually for the duration of a decade, where ninety-two billion

dollars would be spent annually for the duration of a decade, and where two hundred and fifty

billion dollars would be spent annually for the duration of six years. In the first scenario, after

factoring in dozens of factors, it is estimated that there will be approximately thirty-two thousand

jobs created which require a bachelors degree or higher. For a significant number of

engineering jobs to have been made, approximately seventy percent of these jobs would have to

be in engineering, which seems possible, but is not necessarily the case because there are people

with college degrees who manage the monetary side of these projects who are not engineers.

However, in the next scenario, only about thirteen percent of the jobs would need to be

engineering jobs, and in the last scenario only about five percent. From this evidence, it is

apparent that infrastructure has the ability to create a significant number of engineering jobs if

there is significant spending.

This last study will examine the ability of a private-public partnership creates more jobs.

According to Rachel Weber, private-public partnerships are very poor at creating jobs. She

argues that this is because there are mostly concerned with procuring profits for themselves and

do not like the lack of surety in the informal arrangements made by politicians [119].
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Conclusion:

From this data, it is thereby possible to determine which plan would create the most

engineering jobs. Through the data both from American history and from modern infrastructure

estimates, it is evident that infrastructure spending does create a significant amount of

engineering jobs, thereby ruling out the Republicans plan as the best option for engineering jobs.

This leaves the only two options as being Donald Trumps plan and the Democrats plan. Due to

the last piece of data which states that private-public partnerships creating few jobs, this would

remove Donald Trumps plan from the picture. The only way that Trumps plan could potentially

make a significant number of engineering jobs is if he could create a way to overcome businesses

reluctance to infrastructure projects. Until then, it appears that Democrats infrastructure plan

will create the most engineering jobs.

References:

Architecture and Engineering Occupations [Online]. Available:

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/home.htm

B. Singman. (2017, January 25). Democrats pitch $1T infrastructure plan - will Trump get on

board? (1st Edition) [Online]. Available:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/25/democrats-pitch-1t-infrastructure-plan-will-

trump-get-on-board.html
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C. Schouten. (2016, November 29). A potential pothole in Trumps infrastructure plan (1st

Edition) [Online]. Available: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trumps-

infrastructure-plan-has-a-potential-pothole/

CCC Brief History [Online]. Available: http://www.ccclegacy.org/CCC_Brief_History.html

H. Warfield. (2017, January 31). 3 Charts That Show the Surprising Scope Of Trumps

Infrastructure Plan (1st Edition) [Online]. Available:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/datadesign/2017/01/31/3-charts-that-show-the-surprising-

scope-of-trumps-infrastructure-plan/#60bf42fc1c52

J. Bivens. (2014, July 1). The Short- and Long-Term Impact of Infrastructure Investments on

Employment and Economic Activity in the U.S. Economy (1st Edition) [Online].

Available: http://www.epi.org/publication/impact-of-infrastructure-investments/

J. W. Studebaker. An Overview of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Junior-Senior High

School Clearing House, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 134-138, November, 1935.

Jobs created during U.S. presidential terms [Online]. Available:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_created_during_U.S._presidential_terms

K. A. Wolfe and L. Gardner. (2016, November 11). Conservatives vs. Trumps infrastructure

plan (1st Edition). [Online]. Available:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/conservatives-vs-trumps-infrastructure-plan-

231221
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M. B. Williams. (2017, January 17). Would Trumps Infrastructure Plan Fix Americas Cities?

(1st Edition) [Online]. Available:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trump-infrastructure-cities/512432/

R. Webber. Why Local Economic Development Incentives Don't Create Jobs: The Role of

Corporate Governance: 1998 R. Marlin Smith Student Writing Competition Award

Winner, The Urban Lawyer. vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 97-119, 200.

U.S. and World Population Clock [Online]. Available: https://www.census.gov/popclock/

Y. Mui. (2017, March 31). Breaking down Trumps $1 trillion infrastructure plan (1st Edition)

[Online]. Available: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000606343