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CONTENTS
U.S. President Biden's Infrastructure Plan
• Infrastructure
Plan to Pay the Rich
- K.C. Adams -
Report
on U.S. Infrastructure by
American Society of Civil Engineers
• Summary
of Biden's Infrastructure
Plan
U.S. President Biden's
Infrastructure Plan
- K.C. Adams -
  
The Biden Administration infrastructure plan is
presently before the U.S. Congress. The plan seeks
to put $2.3 trillion in funds from the public
treasury into constructing new infrastructure and
rebuilding already existing roads, bridges, rails,
electric grids, water supplies, ports and
airports.
Over half of the proposed funds are slated for
direct handouts to private investors in what is
called green projects such as $174 billion in
pay-the-rich schemes for the auto oligopolies to
produce electric vehicles or as some commentators
derisively remark "to make Elon Musk richer."
A modern economy requires social infrastructure
serving all sectors regardless of the relations of
production or system of ownership and control. In
a country the size of the United States, social
infrastructure is massive in scope demanding
equally massive investments. Infrastructure is
socialized means of production that all
enterprises and the people require in one way or
another. The necessity is not in dispute. The
issue facing the people is not the necessity of
social infrastructure but who controls it and in
whose social class interest it is built,
maintained and realized
(paid for).
Should
financing, building, maintaining and realization of social
infrastructure serve the competing private interests of the oligarchy
or the common good of the economy as a whole and the people and society
and its humanization? Working people can resolve this problem in their
favour with mass political mobilization to stake their claims on what
is theirs by right and open a path forward to democratic renewal and a
new pro-social direction for the economy.
Infrastructure and Imperialist Globalization
Means of transportation are an obvious necessity.
The need exists to transport resources and
commodities to factories and other workplaces,
including the human factor and its capacity to
work. The further transportation of commodities to
retail outlets and buyers, and customers to
markets are all
necessary functions of a modern economy.
Globalization has added distance to all these
activities.
 International
infrastructure under imperialism includes
militarization and the competition for
investments, resources, markets and workers to
exploit. Resistance of the people to foreign
control and exploitation is unrelenting with
challenges to imperialism coming from all
quarters. Development
is uneven and competitors inevitably arise to
challenge the existing powers with war a constant
danger. For example, the silk road of the old
world has become the Belt and Road Initiative of
the modern one to build international
infrastructure connecting China to 71 countries.
In response, the U.S.
imperialists under President Obama announced a
U.S. military "pivot to Asia" and preparations for
war with China, which is now intensifying under
President Biden with Prime Minister Trudeau and
others in lockstep. International and domestic
infrastructure is a concern of the ruling U.S.
oligarchy closely
connected with its war economy driven by their
individual private interests and their collective
desire for global hegemony and to defeat all
rivals.
Ownership, Control and Realization of
Infrastructure
The ownership and control of infrastructure, its
financing, price of production and realization,
the distribution of profits and which companies
are to be involved in its construction,
maintenance and management both at home and abroad
are matters that the oligarchs and their political
representatives fight over according to their
private interests and needs. The common good and
how infrastructure should serve the entire economy
and its parts in cooperation are not
considerations of the imperialist oligarchs. Their
quest for maximum private profit dominates their
thinking and
actions.
Once decided by those in control, infrastructure
needs financing. The $2.3 trillion will come from
both general taxation and deficit financing. This
suits the oligarchs fine as lending governments
money is a safe and reliable way not only to make
some interest but also to park money that has few
other possibilities at the time. General taxation
has become a matter of the working class paying
from its reproduced-value as most oligarchs and
their enterprises pay relatively little in taxes.
The construction and maintenance of
infrastructure is mostly a private affair of huge
companies that are customarily owned and
controlled by global investment cartels. The
profits from infrastructure construction are
enormous as can be seen from the scramble and
infighting among the rich for
political influence to be in a position to decide
and award contracts.
Realization
of the transferred-value of infrastructure is shrouded in mystery. The
enterprises that consume infrastructure as means of production and
distribution want to do so at the lowest price, if at all. In many
cases they do not pay anything such as with mass commuter transit, or
only partially at a fraction of the real value with roads and bridges,
and with agreements on lower "industrial rates" for example with the
Post Office or state owned hydro-electric enterprises.
The
oligarchs regard infrastructure that reproduces the human factor and
keeps workers available, healthy and educated to standards they need as
not their responsibility to pay for (realize) through their enterprises
other than by minimal user fees, corporate taxation, charity and
certain collective agreements with their own workers for pensions and
other benefits.
The refusal to recognize social infrastructure as
necessary means of production for which all
enterprises active in the economy are individually
and collectively responsible has the effect of
dumping the cost of realization onto the working
class. The refusal of those who control the
economy
and its parts to recognize and assume their social
responsibilities means problems go unresolved,
social conditions deteriorate, and the people are
deprived of their right to education, health care,
employment and even their lives.
Nation-Building
Under
the current regime of the oligarchs, infrastructure spending is
directed at strengthening their private interests and control in
contradiction with the necessity for nation-building to serve both the
people and the economy. Modern nation-building is a project the working
class must assume under its control and aim to serve the people and
their society and all humanity.
Very little of the public spending under the
control of the oligarchy results in realized
actual and potential income from state enterprises
that can then be reinvested in other
infrastructure or social programs This lack
results in a structural problem for imperialism as
to where public
funds can be found to pay the rich and to finance
the massive domestic and international police
powers, state bureaucracy and infrastructure. The
oligarchs shift the burden of finding public funds
for the state treasury onto the working class
through individual taxation and user fees. This
results
in constant downward pressure on the working class
and its standard of living.
 Reduced
state spending on social programs and the necessity for the oligarchs
to always have a certain level of unemployment or "surplus workers"
available at any time result in deteriorating social conditions and a
continuous stream of workers falling out of the productive workforce
into extreme poverty, and an equally large number of people engaged in
social welfare and charity attempting to help the poor or advocate for
their needs. Why this industrialization of poverty and charity exists
is never questioned in official circles even though the productivity of
the modern economy quite obviously allows solutions to be organized to
lift up all people culturally and socially, affirm their rights and
allow them to participate in work and life according to their ability.
When building and maintaining social
infrastructure, the private interests of the
oligarchy are first and foremost served. This is
yet another reason the oligarchs fight so
ferociously amongst themselves to ensure their
private interests are represented in government
and that their political
operatives within the cartel parties win positions
to award contracts.
The exposure of the political economy regarding
infrastructure and the refusal of the oligarchy to
meet its responsibilities is a front of the
struggle to affirm the rights of all and claim
what belongs to the working class by right as the
producer of all value. The exposure and class
struggle to
stop paying the rich and increase spending on
social programs point to the necessity for a new
direction for the economy where the actual
producers themselves take control of economic and
political affairs freed from the burden of the
narrow competing private interests of the
oligarchs dictating
what is to be done in contradiction with working
people and the socialized productive forces.
Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers' Report Card for America's Infrastructure
describes the condition and performance of the U.S. infrastructure and
assigns letter grades based on the physical condition and needed
investments for improvement. The Biden administration is using the 2021
report outlining the many deficiencies in the national infrastructure
to bolster its argument that the $2.3 trillion plan to pay the rich is
necessary.
 In fact, the
failure of the infrastructure is exposed in the
daily lives of the people such as poisoned tap
water in Flint, Michigan, the suffering of people
during the western heat wave and the obvious
deteriorating living and working conditions in
many cities and towns including the recent
sudden collapse of a condo tower in a fairly
wealthy enclave in Florida resulting in many lost
lives. Building and maintaining social
infrastructure is a constant necessity of any
society, in particular modern ones where the
economy and life itself have become socialized and
interconnected.
The
problem lies not in knowing that infrastructure is in disrepair but
that the financial oligarchy in control of the economy and political
affairs is not capable of organizing what has to be done. Building
infrastructure in a modern context is part of nation-building for the
common good. For this to occur, an aim of serving the people, the
economy, nation and all humanity, with sovereignty and control vested
in the people is needed.
The
aim of the oligarchs is based on expropriating the new value that
workers under their control produce at home and abroad in fierce
competition with other global oligarchs. To maximize their private
profit the oligarchs are obsessed with serving their private interests
and not the broad general interests of the people and nation. With this
narrow aim, the oligarchs demand that the economy and its
infrastructure serve their private interests in one way or another.
Their actions come into direct conflict with the modern socialized
economy that needs cooperation for the benefit of all and not greed and
competition to serve the few. The results are recurring economic
crises, war, unresolved problems and deteriorating social and natural
conditions.
In
the modern era, nation-building advances as the people fight for
control and decision making. Workers organizing to affirm rights and
claims on what they produce serves nation-building and the broad
socialized economy. Serving the general interests of society and all
humanity throughout the world requires cooperation and mutual benefit
for all sectors and enterprises of the economy.
Report and Evaluation of U.S. Infrastructure
The most recent report and evaluation of the U.S.
infrastructure by the American Society of Civil
Engineers says bridges, roadways, public transit,
ports, airports, inland waterways, water supplies,
wastewater pipelines, sewer systems and other
infrastructure need investments of at least $6
trillion to meet the needs of the economy.
The
report estimates that over 40 per cent of the nation's roads and
highways are in poor or mediocre condition. The report adds that the
drinking water infrastructure system, some 2.2 million miles of
underground pipes, is aging and badly in need of renewal. Local water
utilities are replacing only one to five per cent a year, far too
little, due to lack of funding.
The report also notes that of the 617,000 bridges
in the United States "42 per cent are at least 50
years old, and 46,154, or 7.5 per cent of the
nation's bridges, are considered structurally
deficient and in poor condition." The report says
the backlog of urgently needed bridge repair
requires
$125 billion more than the Biden total for
highways, streets and bridges. The Biden
administration uses these self-evident facts about
the infrastructure as reasons to pay the rich and
serve the narrow private interests of those
oligarchs with whom his cartel party in power is
connected.
The
issue is not whether renewal of infrastructure is needed or not. The
issue is who decides? Who decides the direction of the economy and for
what purpose? By constituting itself the nation, building it in its own
image and vesting decision-making power in the people, the working
class can build the nation anew with a new aim and direction for the
economy and politics that serve the people and society. This becomes a
base for assisting all humanity to move forward.
To view the reports of the ASCE, click here.
The digest of the plan is gleaned from a White
House Fact Sheet.[1] Comments are in double parentheses
((The
public funds involved in the infrastructure plan serve to pay the rich
and their particular private interests, not the general welfare. The
amounts in the infrastructure bill before Congress coupled with the
budgeted amounts already approved for the U.S. military, Homeland
Security and the numerous spy agencies, are breathtaking in their size
and scope. They show the extraordinary productive capacity of the
modern working class and the socialized productive forces on which they
work. If the available social wealth were channelled into human-centred
nation-building projects serving the people, remarkable progress could
be made on all fronts and a start made to humanize the social and
natural environment. Already, the fight of the peoples worldwide
against war, for anti-war governments and peace economies, is showing
the way forward.))
Transportation
$621 billion to build and repair physical
transportation infrastructure: roads, bridges,
public transit, rail, ports, waterways, airports
and electric vehicles.
Repair American roads and bridges. One in five
miles or 173,000 total miles of highways and major
roads are in poor condition, as well as 45,000
bridges.
$115 billion of the total is specifically for
highways, streets and to fix the most economically
significant large bridges and repair the worst
10,000 smaller bridges.
((Continental transportation corridors are on the
agenda in conjunction with further integrating
Mexico and Canada into the U.S. war economy. U.S.
Homeland Security wants strategic transportation
corridors for military purposes to move troops and
materiel to suppress rebellion of the working
class
and other mass political actions in defence of
rights such as the uprising in 2020 against police
killings of Black Americans and others. Also,
competing sections of the oligarchy want mobility
for police and military forces under their control
in the event of a civil war with their rich
rivals. The
transportation corridors are also classified as
strategic for purposes of ripping and shipping out
Canada's resources and moving goods from Mexico.))
Public Mass Transit
The Department of Transportation declares the
current transit infrastructure inadequate. It
estimates a repair backlog of over $105 billion in
purchasing is necessary. This represents more than
24,000 buses, 5,000 rail cars, 200 stations, and
thousands of miles of track, signals, and power
systems in need of replacement. An additional $85
billion is earmarked to modernize existing
transit, which means doubling federal funding for
public transit.
$80 billion is required to address Amtrak's
repair backlog and modernize the Northeast
Corridor line between Boston and Washington, DC.
The plan will improve ports, waterways, and
airports: $17 billion will go to deal with inland
waterways, coastal ports, land ports of entry, and
ferries, which are all essential to the nation's
freight.
The
nation's airports lag far behind global competitors. According to some
rankings, no U.S. airports rank in the top 25 of airports worldwide.
The plan will invest $25 billion in airports, including funding for the
Airport Improvement Program, upgrades to Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) assets that ensure safe and efficient air travel,
and a new program to support terminal renovations and multimodal
connections for affordable, convenient, car-free access to air travel.
((Mass public transit is an important part of the
social infrastructure as means of production for
the socialized economy. No modern economy can
function without mass transit to move workers to
and from work and consumers to and from shopping
areas and for other purposes. All enterprises in
the
economy more or less are responsible to realize
(pay for) the price of production of the social
means of production. The amount each enterprise
should pay for mass transit could easily be
determined, which should go directly to the
producing entities and not into general government
coffers.
Also, the price of production for mass transit
could be broadly reduced and its use by the people
humanized, if building, maintaining and supplying
mass transit with the necessary buildings,
vehicles, machinery and material were consistently
organized as human-centred public enterprises
where the
added-value workers produce is reinvested into
improving all aspects of mass transit instead of
having the added-value expropriated as private
profit.
The
large size of investment needed in modern transportation means that the
rate of profit for private investors is low – if it were not for
governments paying the rich. This is evident in aviation where private
airline companies are among the most heavily subsidized by governments.
This not only includes direct handouts to these companies but all the
necessary social means of production such as airports and research that
governments fund. Research and development and production of airplanes
are also closely connected with the military and government procurement
of war machinery and materiel at inflated prices.))
America First
This changes the rules regarding federal spending on
American-made goods, equipment, vehicles and
materials for infrastructure projects: $180
billion to invest to advance U.S. leadership in
research and development in critical technologies,
upgrade the U.S.'s research infrastructure and
establish the
U.S. as a leader in climate science, innovation
and research and development.
Spurs
domestic supply chains from raw materials to parts, retooling of
factories to compete globally, and support for having American workers
make batteries and electric vehicles. ((The
U.S.-dominated imperialist system of states already follows the
"America First" mantra, where "First" is understood as the U.S. ruling
oligarchy. The globalized U.S. military roams the world to ensure the
dominance of the U.S. oligarchy and that the world's humanity bows to
its demands and aim of maximum profit for the rich. The rulers
evidently think all this talk of America First will somehow convince
everyone that strengthening the very oligarchy responsible for the
current social and natural problems and conditions the working people
face in the U.S. can lead to solutions. The peoples have not forgotten
their experience, present and past and everywhere consider that the
rulers have no legitimacy, no answers and that it is the peoples in
their many struggles for rights that are providing an alternative.)) Manufacturing
The
White House writes, "The U.S. manufacturing sector accounts for 70 per
cent of business research and development (R&D) expenditure, 30 per
cent of productivity growth, and 60 per cent of exports.
Manufacturing is a critical node that helps convert research and
innovation into sustained economic growth."
The plan invests $300 billion to strengthen
manufacturing supply chains for critical goods and
invests $50 billion to create a new office at the
Department of Commerce dedicated to monitoring
domestic industrial capacity and funding
investments to support production of critical
goods. The plan
also invests $50 billion in semiconductor
manufacturing and research.
((The
Biden plan has nothing to do with solving the problems of contemporary
relations of production and how to utilize the enormous productive
powers of socialized production for the common good. For example,
public education and research developed the knowledge to produce
vaccines and other modern pharmaceuticals yet the private manufacturers
of Big Pharma declare this collective human knowledge their private
property, their "intellectual property." They are expropriating
billions in profit from Covid-19 vaccines that governments are buying,
not to speak of the dark money they are seizing from the opioid
pain-killer disaster they have unleashed on the world that last year
resulted in 93,331 overdose deaths in the U.S. alone.))
Increase Access to Capital for Domestic
Manufacturers
The plan will invest more than $52 billion in
domestic manufacturers and includes specific
supports for modernizing supply chains, including
in the auto sector, like extending the "48C tax
credit" program. It calls for the creation of a
new financing program to support debt and equity
investments
for manufacturing to strengthen the resilience of
America's supply chains and will invest $31
billion in programs that give small businesses
access to credit, venture capital, and R&D
dollars.
((Wealthy
private interests have seized control of governments at all levels,
seizing the public purse to serve their private interests while the
people are demanding that the common good be served, with increased
investments in social programs and an end to funding war and massive
policing.))
Research and Development
The
White House writes: "Public investments in R&D lay the foundation
for the future breakthroughs that over time yield new businesses, new
jobs, and more exports. However, we need more investment if we want to
maintain our economic edge in today's global economy. We are one of the
few major economies whose public investments in R&D have declined
as a per cent of GDP in the past 25 years. Countries like China are
investing aggressively in R&D, and China now ranks number two in
the world in R&D expenditures [...] In order to win the 21st
century economy, President Biden believes America must get back to
investing in the researchers, laboratories, and universities across our
nation. But this time, we must do so with a commitment to lifting up
workers and regions who were left out of past investments.
"He
is calling on Congress to make a $180 billion investment that will:
Advance U.S. leadership in critical technologies and upgrade America's
research infrastructure. U.S. leadership in new technologies -- from
artificial intelligence to biotechnology to computing -- is critical to
both our future economic competitiveness and our national security [...]
"President
Biden is calling on Congress to invest $50 billion in the National
Science Foundation (NSF), creating a technology directorate that will
collaborate with and build on existing programs across the government.
It will focus on fields like semiconductors and advanced computing,
advanced communications technology, advanced energy technologies, and
biotechnology.
"He also is calling on Congress to provide $30
billion in additional funding for R&D that spurs innovation and job
creation, including in rural areas. His plan also will invest $40
billion in upgrading research infrastructure in laboratories across the
country, including brick-and-mortar facilities and computing
capabilities and networks [...]
"The President is calling on
Congress to invest $35 billion in the full range of solutions needed to
achieve technology breakthroughs that address the climate crisis and
position America as the global leader in clean energy technology and
clean energy jobs [...] In addition to a $5 billion increase in funding
for other climate-focused research, his plan will invest $15 billion in
demonstration projects for climate R&D priorities, including
utility-scale energy storage, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen,
advanced nuclear, rare earth element separations, floating offshore
wind, biofuel/bioproducts, quantum computing, and electric vehicles, as
well as strengthening U.S. technological leadership in these areas in
global markets."
((All hail the financial oligarchy that dictates all the affairs that
affect the people's lives! This reads like a manifesto for war to
defeat all competitors, and "win the 21st century" for
the U.S. oligarchs. The demand in the U.S. is for All
Troops Home Now! Everywhere
there is the demand that breakthroughs in science,
including vaccines, are not for war and profit
but to be shared by all and serve humanity.))
Digital Infrastructure
$100 billion to build a high-speed broadband
infrastructure in order to reach 100 per cent
coverage across the nation.
((Big tech already controls the Internet and
social media. This will make the rich even more
powerful at the expense of the people.))
Workforce Development
The plan will invest $100 billion in proven
workforce development programs. It will pair job
creation efforts with next generation training
programs including high-quality training and
effective partnerships between educational
institutions, unions, and employers. The plan
includes $40 billion
for a new Dislocated Workers Program including job
training for formerly incarcerated individuals and
justice-involved youth, and sector-based training
to educate workers in new skills for in-demand
jobs. Sector-based training programs will be
focused on growing high demand sectors such as
clean
energy, manufacturing, and caregiving. In sum, the
plan is to build the capacity of the existing
workforce including registered apprenticeships and
pre-apprenticeships, creating one to two million
new registered apprenticeships slots.
((This is disguised as helping the working class
while in fact public funds are being used to train
workers for the oligopolies especially in modern
production techniques without having big business
pay the social price of production of workers'
capacity to work.))
Green Energy, Electric Vehicles and Their Grid
Electric vehicle (EV) sales will not accelerate
without an electric transportation infrastructure.
Shift to electric vehicles: $174 billion public
investment in private companies to win the global
EV market. Plan will give consumers point of sale
rebates and tax incentives to buy American-made
EVs, establish grant and incentive programs for
state and local governments and the private sector
to
build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by
2030, consumers' rebates and tax incentives to buy
American-made electric vehicles. Direct $100
billion towards electric grid modernization.
Replace 50,000 diesel transit vehicles and
electrify at least 20 per cent of the yellow school
bus fleet. Government will utilize the vast tools
of federal procurement to electrify the federal
fleet, including the United States Postal Service;
$46 billion for federal purchases of electric
cars,
charging ports, and electric heat pumps for
housing and commercial buildings.
$27 billion for "clean energy and sustainability
accelerator," which extends tax credits to promote
solar and wind energy alternatives.
$10 billion to create a "Civilian Climate Corps"
to promote public investment in private green
enterprises.
The plan will invest $16 billion in putting the
energy industry to work plugging orphan oil and
gas wells and cleaning up abandoned coal,
hardrock, and uranium mines.
In thousands of rural and urban communities
around the country, hundreds of thousands of
former industrial and energy sites are now idle.
The plan will invest $5 billion for the
remediation and redevelopment of these Brownfield
and "Superfund" sites.
The plan will reactivate the Appalachian Regional
Commission's POWER grant program, Department of
Energy retooling grants for idled factories and
capacity and project grants to address legacy
pollution.
Biden believes that the market-based shift toward
clean energy presents enormous opportunities for
the development of new markets and new industries.
The plan will establish ten pioneer facilities
that demonstrate carbon capture retrofits for
large steel, cement, and chemical production
facilities. The plan reforms and expands the
Section 45Q tax credit making it direct pay and
easier to use for hard-to-decarbonize industrial
applications, direct air capture, and retrofits of
existing power plants. ((The
green sector is fast becoming a dominant one for the oligarchy with new
billionaires such as former Vice-President Al Gore emerging with
enormous power and the political influence to control and direct public
funds in their direction. Any undertakings and investments of the size
announced in the Biden plan require funds beyond the willingness of the
private sector to provide without government guarantees of the security
of the investment and return. The oligarchy is striving to use their
power to deprive the working class from bringing into being new
relations of production in conformity with the already socialized means
of production, which would open a path for a pro-social, anti-war
direction for the economy and political affairs.) Water
The
plan invests $111 billion to replace 100 per cent of the nation's lead
pipes and service lines and is to upgrade the country's drinking water,
wastewater and stormwater systems, tackle new contaminants and support
clean water infrastructure in rural parts of the country. The plan will
put $45 billion in the Environmental Protection Agency's Drinking Water
State Revolving Fund and in Water
Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act
(WIIN) grants.
Housing
The plan invests $213 billion to produce,
preserve, and retrofit more than 2 million
affordable and sustainable places to live through
targeted tax credits, formula funding, grants, and
project-based rental assistance. It will invest
$40 billion to improve the infrastructure of the
public
housing system in America.
The plan establishes a grant program that awards
flexible funding to jurisdictions that take steps
to eliminate barriers to creating affordable
housing. The plan will contract companies to
upgrade homes and businesses through block grant
programs, the Weatherization Assistance Program,
and by
extending and expanding home and commercial
efficiency tax credits.
The plan will establish a $27 billion Clean
Energy and Sustainability Accelerator to mobilize
private investment into distributed energy
resources; retrofits of residential, commercial
and municipal buildings; and clean transportation.
((This
public money is directed at private construction enterprises and
lending institutions, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. What
is needed are social housing projects dedicated to providing housing
for all at the highest cultural and material levels that exist at this
point, with decision making in the hands of the people.))
Schools
There is $100 billion to build new public schools and
upgrade existing buildings with better ventilation
systems, updated technology labs, and improved
school kitchens that can prepare more nutritious
meals. $12 billion would go to states to use
towards infrastructure needs at community colleges
with
conditions attached to address existing physical
and technological infrastructure. The money is to
be made available through $50 billion in direct
grants and an additional $50 billion leveraged
through bonds. ((The
right to education is required for society to function and educational
facilities need to be put on a modern basis to meet that right,
including decision-making by teachers, staff, parents and students.)) Child Care
$25
billion is allocated to upgrade privately owned and controlled child
care facilities. The plan also wants to expand a tax credit to
encourage employers to build care facilities at places of work.
Employers will receive 50 per cent of the first $1 million of
construction costs per facility.
((This is yet another plan to pay the rich not
only by giving public money to the increasingly
monopolized private daycare centres but also to
the privately owned construction companies. Child
daycare and early learning centres should be part
of a human-centred public education system from
birth
to passing away that affirms the right to
education for all at the highest level society has
attained.))
Medical Investments
The plan allocates $30 billion for new
investments in medical pandemic countermeasures in
manufacturing; research and development and
related biopreparedness and biosecurity to shore
up our nation's strategic national stockpile. It
accelerates the timeline to research, develop and
field test and
therapeutics for emerging and future outbreaks;
accelerate response time by developing prototype
vaccines through Phase I and II trials, test
technologies for the rapid scaling of vaccine
production, and ensure sufficient production
capacity in an emergency; train personnel for
epidemic and pandemic
response; and onshore active pharmaceutical
ingredients. The plan invests $10 billion in the
American Rescue Plan to prevent future pandemics.
((This
is all well and good but these investments really help private Big
Pharma to become richer than they already are. The scandal with
government purchasing of vaccines from private cartels that have
benefited from public funds for research and development and scientists
with a modern education should not be repeated. Human thought material
belongs to all humanity and should not be a matter of private ownership
and manipulated to enrich a few individuals.))
Elderly Long-term Care
The
plan provides a $400 billion expenditure on mostly privately owned and
controlled long-term care for the elderly and disabled.
((Note that these care homes have been a centre
of death and misery during the pandemic and yet
are to be rewarded with public funds instead of
being held to account for their crimes.))
The plan expands access to long-term care
services under Medicaid. It provides more
opportunity for people to receive care at home
through community-based services or from family
members. $450 billion to allow more older
Americans and their families to receive care at
home or in their
communities, as opposed to nursing homes and other
institutions. The plan notes that caregivers have
been underpaid and undervalued for far too long.
Wages for essential home care workers are
approximately $12 per hour, putting them among the
lowest paid workers in the economy. In fact, one
in six
workers in this sector lives in poverty. Research
shows that increasing the pay of direct care
workers greatly enhances workers' financial
security, improves productivity, and increases the
quality of care offered. Another study showed that
increased pay for care workers prevented deaths,
reduced
the number of health violations, and lowered the
cost of preventative care.
((The
entire long-term care sector needs a new direction as does health care
generally. All social programs must be human-centred. The workers who
do the work, including the professionals, and the people they serve,
are the ones that know what is needed to humanize elderly long-term
care. Their many struggles for rights during the pandemic bring out
that they are the ones that need to decide, something Biden's plan
rejects.))
More on How the Plan Pays the Rich and Strengthens Their Control
The White House writes: "Jumpstart clean energy
manufacturing through federal procurement. The
federal government spends more than
half-a-trillion dollars buying goods and services
each year. As a result, it has the ability to be a
first-mover in markets [...] By 2050, the United
States will need
more electric vehicles, charging ports, and
electric heat pumps for residential heating and
commercial buildings. The President is calling on
Congress to enable the manufacture of those cars,
ports, pumps, and clean materials, as well as
critical technologies like advanced nuclear
reactors and fuel,
here at home through a $46 billion investment in
federal buying power [...] Make it in ALL of
America. The President believes we must build
social infrastructure to support innovation and
productivity across the country. He is calling on
Congress to invest $20 billion in regional
innovation hubs and a
Community Revitalization Fund. At least ten
regional innovation hubs will leverage private
investment to fuel technology development, link
urban and rural economies, and create new
businesses in regions beyond the current handful
of high-growth centers [... The plan will] invest
$14 billion in NIST [National Institute of
Standards and Technology] to bring together
industry, academia, and government to advance
technologies and capabilities critical to future
competitiveness [and] to quadruple support for the
Manufacturing Extensions Partnership."
((The Biden infrastructure plan demands that the
strength of the modern productive forces be
mobilized to enhance the power, wealth and
privilege of the ruling oligarchy. But this
private control and ownership is in contradiction
with the modern socialized productive forces. The
productive forces
must come under the control of socialized
humanity, the working people who can utilize the
tremendous actual and potential power of the
modern means of production to humanize the social
and natural environment and put an end to the
outdated and backward motive for maximum private
profit that
exploits the working people and tears the
socialized economy apart through reckless greed
and unbridled competition and war.))
Note
1. "FACT
SHEET: President Biden Announces Support for
the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework,"
White House, June 24, 2021
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individually click on the black headline.)
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