All of our country’s dams — or “the most powerful device we have for holding back liquid, aside from the idea of using a porta-potty” — are old and faulty, and nobody is paying attention to them. As John Oliver explored on Last Week Tonight, the same goes for our roads, highways, bridges and pipes; so much so that the American Society of Civil Engineers rated America’s infrastructure system a “D+,” and the Secretary of Transportation can’t decide between the words “unsafe” and “dangerous” when it comes to our bridges.
It seems like everyone is on the same page with this — really, even Donald Trump agrees — so why can’t we fix this problem? Because there’s nothing politically appealing about “fixing things.” Even the gas tax that maintains our highways hasn’t been adjusted to keep up with inflation since 1993, and nobody wants to pay more at the pump.
As always, the Last Week Tonight team has come up with a solution to our country’s infrastructure crisis. Pointing out that while every summer, people flock to the movies to see our infrastructure threatened by terrorists and aliens, John Oliver notes that so far, no one has made a blockbuster about protecting our roads and bridges from the “inevitable passage of time.” If anyone can win over the American people, it’s flashy cinematography and big names like Edward Norton. Otherwise, we’re all going to die in dam breaks and bridge collapses.
