Potholes

Russia has notoriously bad roads. The US has famously good roads. Or so we thought. It is a well-known fact that in Russia money for road construction is largely stolen, and the quality of the road output is a far cry from what was paid for.

We live in the South of the US - North Carolina, to be precise. For years I was convinced that we don't have potholes in the roads and few road repair projects overall because Americans just do it right (well, illegal Mexicans actually, but for the sake of generalization let us consider all our construction workers American). Our engineers know what they are doing, they design roads well, we use proper techniques, we do not cut corners, we use good quality materials, and the output speaks for itself.

And then this winter happened (regards to Al Gore!). We've had two big snow falls so far - as in 8" of snow each time, which in Russia happens about every week. And all around the city our roads are a mess. We have so many potholes that we even stopped trying to go around them. There is simply no way. Our daughter damaged disks on two of her car wheels after she hit one of the potholes for they are deep. So our perception of superior American construction technique and materials goes out with a smoke, and the extent of the problem is so monumental that I am not sure how the city will be able to handle the road repair project of this scale.

Likewise, this recession opened up deep potholes in our whole economy. My perception of American business and political system as being well designed, fair and honest went out with a smoke. We simply looked good, but we were not built well. We were deceiving the whole world into thinking we knew how to "build roads," whereas we were just extremely lucky to not have had bad weather for 70 years through no achievement of our own. And I am not sure how the country will be able to afford the economy repair project of this epic scale. Oh, wait! Are they going to ask us to pay for it, too, just like for the faulty road construction?