Pri: Except that I NEVER said a thing about ROI on infrastructure projects. I was making the point that, while the money is undoubtedly well spent, the existing public works system is COMPLETELY INCAPABLE of taking that sort of money in right now and putting it to beneficial use. That is a fact and one that Obama ruefully acknowledged when he made the “shovel-ready” comment.

So, yes, pri, it actually does matter whether or not Krugman or anyone else has calluses on their hands, because it indicates a real-world understanding of how things actually get built, instead of a cloistered, academic “understanding” and one driven by models and inputs.

In theory, you can drop untold billions into infrastructure projects (and, yes, we sorely need to revamp our infrastructure). In reality, not so much. The system by which projects are designed, engineered and let simply doesn’t work that way, again, as Obama found out the hard way.

That was my point and it had zilch to do with ROI. Again, read what is written and respond. In other words, come correct.