But if we don't invest in our infrastructure we most assuredly will not move forward. And if we keep on burning fossil fuels mother nature will spank us hard. So why not kill two birds with one stone and invest in green infrastructure? Seems like a win-win to me.

so what would you suggest?

Everyone kicks the can down the hall. The law of unforeseen consequences is well known.
The town floods, you build a levy. spring tide comes an you don't get flooded but the next town downstream does.
Capitalism is cyclical, economics 101 yet everyone seems to forget this when planning for our future. The USA has been on an economic war footing since 1942. Couple that with a consumer boom and you have a spiraling debt thats too astronomical to imagine. Okay lets say that a shovel of dirt costs a dollar. Well you could fill the grand canyon 3 times over with the money you owe.
What we are dealing with now is some of the fallout from 9/11. The economy was due for a dip but post 9/11 and Bush could not let the US slump so he pumped, as any politician would. Well whats the odd trillion dollars between fiends. Then you have to service this debt. Not pay back obviously but just roll it over. That costs more than all the pork barreled bills combined. (plus you have the pork barrels as well). You also have some of the most inefficient forms of finance on the planet. The money you spend on health care per capita is staggering and for what? A higher infant mortality rate than Cuba?
Look guys its your country and no one wants to see it go down but wtf. Your like someones car stuck in sand and yet they keep on gunning the engine and spinning the wheels, hoping to get a different result.

There is a third option and that is to create an economy of zero sustained growth that reduces demand and maintains a healthy society through the redistribution of wealth and providing the necessities of life like education, healthcare, food and basic needs, shelter, courts, public transportation, care of the elderly, etc. This would allow the rest of the planet to catch up to the level of the West but, through green tech.

The chances of this happening are really small since the western culture is one of greed and consumption which will end civilization as we know it through as you put it, boundary conditions.

Trump says he believes that more people in employment will solve several of today's problems. He says people in work will have less reason to be concerned with race, prejudice and other inequalities because they have less time to themselves, job responsibility gives them a purpose in life and they have more money to enjoy themselves.

There was talk of improving infrastructure in the lead up to the election. Perhaps that that idea is dead because so much of a modern economy is based on service industries. The economic war-cry of 'put America first' is not a bad idea. We had that idea in Ireland before we joined the E.U. Can changes in economic policy based on putting America first work?

Your talking Economics to the illiterate voting populace that elected 45 for his charismatic flaunt that they viewed on Celebrity Apprentice. Your above comment which is very informative and correctly presented for which we are all very concerned about but for the most left me without HOPE and this type of comment is exactly the kind of answer that he would want for the simple fact that he has absolutely no idea what TF you are talking about. Or could care the F less because he will be playing golf at one of his Resorts on the Taxpayers dime which he has been doing since his first day in Office to which he was appointed by the Electoral College and not the American Populace of which half declined to cast a ballot out of total frustration.
I joined this Website to which I have found a spot worth viewing about God, Religion and where we are to sort it all out. Religions love $$ as do Politicians and History will bear this out. If you could give insight into Jimmy Swaggert, Billy Graham, Jim an Tammy, Joel Olsteen and the Southern Christian Coalition who had his 47% secured. I would think and be proud about your concern that apparently to me has missed what was Agnostic about what you were commenting about because it was for an economic audience and not an Agnostic concern. . Please do not see this as belittling, but as informative as I can try without your feeling offended.

I think that things have become so complex that any plan is going to have flaws and fluctuation in everything will always be a constant. We will just always have to keep working on it without there ever being some kind of utopian ending.

sadly there will be no "easy" solutions