When things are not profitable-- meaning people who expend resources in it are constantly having to add external resources just to stay involved-- those situations result in shrinking engagement and resources. You can have all the passion and altruism in the world, but hypothetically if you make an investment with -10% annual return, let's say, you will eventually be unable despite your best efforts, to expand this investment or even to maintain it in its original condition. Contrast this with a +10% annual return, it will be self-sustaining and someone who believes in it will have the resources over time to do a lot more of it.
Ok then I guess it's time to cancel roads and schools in most Europe, they cost too much. And health too, that's not profitable, ah and trains too ...
Did we collectively lost our minds ? What's going on ? The economy is here to serve the people, not the other way, it's fine to lose money here and there for _critical_ infrastructure
We would have if we deliberately chose to build roads that are 5x more expensive and took 10x longer to build with taxpayer money. Thats where the pro nuclear movement is right now though.
Nuclear power is stupidly expensive. It only gets built because the industrial base shares costs with the nuclear-military industrial complex.
They realize that it's harder to rally concerned citizens around keeping nuclear weapons and subs cheap so instead they tell you that it's green and try to gloss over the fact that it's eye wateringly expensive even when the very expensive disaster insurance is almost exclusively covered by joe taxpayer.
Roads and schools are chronically underfunded, for this reason. In my area for decades one highway was self-sustaining by tolls and was immaculately maintained, pristine pavement, excellent, dedicated maintenance teams, fresh paint. The rest were on a public budget and looked mostly forlorn and forgotten. Same with many schools, probably more, and that's despite public-minded altruists like yourself.
I make this point as someone who poured my time for years into public-minded pursuits like that. And, the roads, or schools, or transit ecosystems gradually deplete the resources of the people making those contributions until they have less, or no more to give. It is the antithesis of a flywheel. It is not something to have an opinion about or downvote, it just is. It's math. Do you see people down voting posts relevantly pointing out `1 + 1 = 2`? No, you don't.
The United States is not the only country in the world. Roads and schools are underfunded by choice. Mostly by small-government advocates who believe everything should be privately funded so taxes can be as low as possible.
Other countries successfully fund their public schools and my country of the Netherlands has extremely well-maintained public roads. We pay more in taxes, but the benefits far outweigh the costs.
It's not about greed. Even if you're the government would you rather spend the same amount of money for 1 GW in 20 years with a ton of difficult environmental and other questions or for 0.7 GW right now?
