Regular listeners often hear me refer to American housing as being made of cardboard and scotch tape. It is not just housing that is no longer built to last, everything else tends to fall apart and need to be repaired or replaced much too soon and far too often. While people agree with me, the explanation I get is that it is cheaper to make junk than it is to build things that will be around, functional and in one piece for awhile.  But how cost effective is it?  Are we destined to continually play “catch up” juggling our budgets to patch and prop things up?  

John Sellers joins us On The Commons.  John has a degree in aeronautical engineering and a background in finance.  When he moved to Arizona he ran into the flawed concept of residential associations.  Taking a step back and looking at the really big picture he identified some of the problems and came up with a few ideas on how to avoid building the “junk” in the first place, especially when it comes to infrastructure.  John, along with his colleagues, founded the  Yavapai Regional Capital . We’ll talk to John, get some of the details, find out how we can build infrastructure that might have a chance of lasting, how to finance it and whether there is a place for modern technology in the future of the world we live in.  This was one of the most fascinating and eye opening interviews I have had.  You won’t want to miss it.

Our Crumbling Infrastructure