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AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructure, inequality, and the virtue of factionalism
Saturday, April 24, 2021
According to some members of the political class, more and more things now qualify as infrastructure. "Paid leave is infrastructure. Child care is infrastructure. Caregiving is infrastructure," tweeted Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recently. By that definition, this redesigned newsletter may count as infrastructure as well.
 
But Glenn Hubbard disagrees. In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal this week, he writes <[link removed]> that despite recent claims, true infrastructure programs focus on investment, not consumption, with the goal of increasing future productivity and national wealth. As it stands now, the Joe Biden administration's proposed American Jobs Plan doesn't do this. Worse, Hubbard argues, if passed, it will actually make future attempts to invest in the nation's infrastructure more difficult.
 
The good news is Congress is still debating the bill. As it does so, however, Congress may find itself hampered by what Yuval Levin calls <[link removed]> our "strange dearth of intra-party factions." This isn't to say the Republicans and Democrats are not internally divided; they certainly are. But within both parties, Levin writes, every competing group feels compelled to claim the mantle of the entire organization, rather than understand themselves as negotiating members of a larger coalition. This can cause problems, because when parties become too unwieldy to pursue a common purpose, internal factions can provide one. They put new ideas on the table and take concerted action to promote their adoption — a useful practice for improving any public policy, be it infrastructure or whatever comes next.
 
Countering China's military challenge might prove to be the most important test. In Defense One, Eric Sayers and Abe Denmark warn <[link removed]> that over the past year, Beijing has escalated its use of coercion and aggression in areas of significant American interest in the western Pacific. Focusing primarily on the threat China may pose in the 2030s is thus not enough: Congress and the White House must work in concert to deter the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of 2025 in addition to the PLA of future decades. The immediate goal, Sayers argues, should be investing in what the 2018 National Defense Strategy called "blunt" forces — those that can quickly delay, degrade, and deny an enemy's efforts, raising costs early in any conflict and therefore deterring Chinese aggression.
 
Finally, writing in The Dispatch, Scott Winship turns his attention <[link removed]> to an American Compass report purporting to show income inequality is at its highest point in nearly 75 years. The problem with this conclusion is it relies on Census Bureau data that miss substantial amounts of income and redistribution. Using Winship's more comprehensive measures, inequality in disposable income seems not to have risen noticeably over the past 30 years. This misunderstanding is emblematic of a larger issue. As Winship describes, a lot of recent policy work coming from the right and left has been too quick to overstate how bad conditions are to advance greater government involvement in economic affairs. But faulty assumptions lead to faulty solutions, and before addressing a problem, we should be sure we understand it correctly.
 
Thank you for your interest in AEI's work, and we'll see you next weekend.
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
Quantum computing: A national security primer
In recent years, governments around the world have pledged more than $20 billion toward quantum development, with China leading in public funding by a decisive margin. In a new report <[link removed]>, Klon Kitchen and Bill Drexel explain explain the stakes of the global quantum development race through a national security lens, discussing quantum computing's significance, the state of the key competitors, and policy recommendations for a stronger American approach to the field.
RESEARCH AND WRITING
Rising incomes render Republican strategy obsolete <[link removed]>
Michael R. Strain
Bloomberg Opinion
Without a focus on maintenance, infrastructure dollars will be wasted
<[link removed]>
R. Richard Geddes
The Hill
The Biden administration's corporate tax statistic is misleading
<[link removed]>
Kyle Pomerleau and Donald Schneider
Bloomberg Tax
California chases away citizens, startups, and, perhaps, the internet industry it invented
<[link removed]>
Bret Swanson
AEIdeas
AEI Polling Report <[link removed]>
Karlyn Bowman, Jacqueline Clemence, and Samantha Goldstein
American Enterprise Institute
The role of community in place-based giving
<[link removed]>
Ryan Streeter
American Enterprise Institute
PODCASTS AND VIDEOS
Mauro F. Guillén: Forecasting the world of 2030 <[link removed]>
James Pethokoukis and Mauro F. Guillén
"Political Economy"
What is quantum science? <[link removed]>
Klon Kitchen
AEI video
What will the next world war look like? Adm. James Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman imagine war with China in 2034, and it's not pretty for America.
<[link removed]>
Danielle Pletka and Marc A. Thiessen
"What the Hell Is Going On?"
We're too sentimental about college
<[link removed]>
Beth Akers and Michelle Singletary
"An Economist Goes to College"
Helping young adults transition from foster care to adulthood <[link removed]>
Naomi Schaefer Riley and Ian Rowe
"Are You Kidding Me?"
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