LastWeekTonight
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 7 months, 2016–2023
21:14 · 16M views · Mar 2, 2015
A John Oliver Last Week Tonight segment on America's crumbling infrastructure and why maintenance is neglected and underfunded. It mixes comedy with real examples such as aging bridges and dams.
HN commenters link it when discussions turn to dam failures, bridge collapses, or the unglamorous work of maintenance.
7 comments from Hacker News
John Oliver did a pretty good piece on infrastructure: this video No politician gets to cut a ribbon with a giant pair of scissors when they fund routine maintenance. So why bother.
actually the imgur.com comments were very insightful one of several recommended videos about the topic, this one is quite funny even if it's very real: this video
Added to the problem is the general lack of funding around the world for infrastructure, owing to the fact that politicians control the purse strings and infrastructure isn't "sexy" [1][2]. Building something new that can be named after someone is no doubt easier to fund than the maintenance of something that already exists. "we always forget that maintenance in perpetuity is much much harder" I imagine that part of the problem is that the heavy maintenance for large engineering projects begins years or decades after completion. Upon completion, it's hard to imagine these huge creations falling apart; add to this an element of "this won't be my problem (I won't be here in 50 years)" and you've got a recipe for short-term thinking - especially by those who don't have the expertise (read: the politicians and bureaucrats). [1] [LINK] [2] John Oliver: this video
I used to live next to the bridge mentioned here by John Oliver. Pittsburgh is something. this video "One of these arch bridges actually has a structure built under it to catch falling deck ... see that structure underneath it, they actually built that to catch falling concrete." ... "They built a bridge under the bridge..." They've since repaired this one.
This reminds me of the episode of Last Week Tonight where John Oliver points out the problems America has on infrastructure maintenance: this video