even without AI yeah. There's trillions of dollars in renewal costs for existing infrastructure arising from the switch to reactive maintenance from routine maintenance and in general deferred maintenance. I don't know where we're going to find the money, for example, to replace every bridge on the I-76

Most buildings and infrastructure constructed since the 70s have been designed with a lifespan of 50 years, with no option for renewal. The idea was that the cost of materials would keep dropping forever, and the individual productivity of workers would keep increasing forever, rendering their replacement with more advanced equivalents even cheaper, if with the march of technology culverts were even needed anymore.

Individual worker productivity has stagnated since the 80s, despite all the new technology we keep throwing at construction sites. Material inflation has been hitting hard for a long time, this is in part why very little was built through the 90s. The recent supply chain shocks of the pandemic era have caused a runaway costing spiral that shows no sign of stopping.

To tie this back to AI: Why would the powers that be even bother to finance the replacement of say the vast majority of the sewer grid if you expect a large swathe of the population to become economically obsolete? You're not paying them welfare, the only people who you're obliged to support are boomers on the edge of civilization. At that point just run out the clock.