Ultra Infrastructure

 What is our country's most pressing infrastructure need? 

Yes, obviously our failing bridges, roads and rails need to be repaired and replaced. But beyond those, what else constitutes "infrastructure" that keeps our nation working, moving, thriving? Several things come to my mind:

1. Broadband, both wired and wireless. Looking at coverage maps for the major wireless carriers, it seems that most of the nation is in good shape, at least for 4G service. But wireless service is not robust, it is too easily disrupted by weather and too often weakens as you are further from a cell tower (the dreaded "I only have one bar" syndrome). Wired is a better deal for truly reliable service, but vast areas of the country are unserved, either because it is not profitable to run wires to sparsely populated places or because there aren't enough people who can afford to pay for it, even in densely populated areas (particularly true in some urban environments).

The solution: We need, for broadband, what we had for electricity in the 1930s--a federal program to support the "internetization" (to coin a term) for rural and poverty areas.

2. Perhaps tied with this--because the wires would be on the same poles and towers--a strengthening and hardening of the power grid. No one should be without power for days on end after a natural disaster; our grid should be able to take up the slack and allow places where generation ability has been shut down to buy power from other locations. And no state or municipality should be allowed to go it alone (no more "Texases"); tying into the national grid should be a federal mandate--or you lose FEMA assistance in a power emergency.

3. Healthcare. Again, rural areas and areas with high poverty rates have both the poorest health and poorest healthcare. Just as education should not be dependent on zip code, neither should healthcare. A federal program to build and, if necessary, staff and operate hospitals and associated healthcare networks is required (and no matter what anyone says, yes. that is infrastructure).