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In fall 2014, Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn participated in the America Answers forum put on by the Washington Post, sharing a stage with, among others, then-Vice President Biden and then-Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.\nIn this reflection recorded after the fact, Chuck analyzes clips of three forum participants\u2019 remarks on the subject of infrastructure spending: Andrew Card, who served as White House Chief of Staff under George W. Bush and Transportation Secretary under George H.W. Bush; Ed Rendell, the Governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011; and Vice President Joe Biden. Their respective framings of America\u2019s infrastructure crisis inspire Chuck to ponder a disappointing reality of recent American politics: neither the political left nor the right seems to talk about infrastructure coherently.\nChuck\u2019s diagnosis is more specific, and might upset some of the partisans in the crowd. Thinkers on the right, he says in this 2015 recording, tend to offer all the right solutions to all the wrong problems. Those on the left, on the other hand, do a better job of identifying the truly pressing problems facing society, but then offer counterproductive solutions.\nWhether you agree or disagree with this assertion, or think it still holds true in 2019, there\u2019s a lot to dig into in this excellent podcast episode.\nVice President Biden frames infrastructure in context of the broader problem of income inequality. And he\u2019s right, says Chuck. Our auto-centric transportation system, which we can\u2019t afford to maintain, creates an enormous cost for individuals and households. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge ante that you have to spend to be in the game\u201d\u2014to have access to the jobs and opportunity that cities provide. Unless, of course, you can spend a fortune for a home in a desirably-located location.\nWhere Biden and Rendell go wrong is in advocating, almost indiscriminately, for throwing money at infrastructure problems without reforming the systems by which we prioritize our investments. \u201cIt all comes back to the oldest story of this country: build, build, build, build,\u201d says Biden. That\u2019s how you grow a middle class. That\u2019s how you produce prosperity. Unless, of course, the stuff you\u2019re building is actually saddling you with future obligations you can\u2019t hope to repay.\nAndrew Card goes wrong in his understanding of what kind of investments are productive, says Chuck. \u201cTexas has an advantage\u201d over the Northeast in solving infrastructure problems, Card claims, because \u201cthey have a lot of land\u201d on which to build cheaply. But this is better understood not as an advantage but as the biggest obstacle facing a place like Texas: \u201cHow do we connect all these far-flung places?\u201d\nWhere Card has a crucial insight is where it comes to solutions to our infrastructure woes: they must involve feedback mechanisms. When the users of infrastructure pay for its maintenance, we end up building things that make sense in the long run. When those who pay and make funding decisions don\u2019t have skin in the game, we end up with things like the TIGER grant program, which has a history of funding bizarre, unnecessary, crazy projects. Let\u2019s talk about user finance, says Card. Instead of the gas tax, how about taxing vehicle miles traveled, or the weight of vehicles (corresponding to wear and tear on roads)? How about incentives for trucks to drive at night to relieve daytime congestion? How do we get more real value out of the system we have?\n\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do at Strong Towns,\u201d says Chuck, \u201cis push back against this approach of throwing our weight and our might at these problems over and over again, like some kind of punch-drunk sailor.\u201d To have a more rational conversation on American infrastructure, we desperately need to grapple with the difference between mere spending and truly productive investment.