Joe Biden’s plan to build…hope

There's a lot of re-paving but also re-skilling

Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan is America’s first major fiscal investment plan in a half-century.

It’s about building concrete things, yes, but also about building hope.

Hope that America will once again have world-beating infrastructure, an eye-popping technological network, high-speed trains and wifi-ready airports – things that the world has long been used to in other parts of the world, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Beijing.

As Fareed Zakaria recently wrote, Donald Trump claimed he wanted to “Make America Great Again” but it is President Biden who is actually attempting to do it.

Once upon a time, the US spent three per cent of its gross domestic product on transportation and water infrastructure; now it spends just about two per cent. Mr Biden wants to change that.

His plan can be summarised in three words:

** repaving

** reorienting

** retooling

Repaving will mean doing all the repairs that have been put off for decades – highways, bridges and so on.

Reorienting will mean nudging the eco…