We are investing in our national infrastructure

Pot holes, crumbling bridges, inadequate wastewater treatment - - the press reports would indicate our national infrastructure is falling apart.  Passenger trains between Chicago and New York run barely faster than they did in 1950.  Our aging infrastructure combined with a lack of political will has produced a bad situation in the context of our national competitiveness.  Or has it?

The Wall Street crowd seems to have jumped on the infrastructure investment bandwagon.  Something call "Spread Networks" constructed a superfast one-inch diameter fiber optics cable between Chicago and New York.  The 825-mile cable was laid in a direct path between Chicago's South Loop to a building across the street from Nasdaq's servers in Carteret, New Jersey (connecting the Chicago Mercantile Exchange with the New York Stock Exchange).  The line cost $300 million and replaced an existing line running 925-miles.  Probably an incredible feat of engineering.

Next time you hit a pot hole remember what the $300 million one-inch diameter line was all about.  Data transmission on the old line was 13.3 milliseconds.  The new line has a transmission rate of three milliseconds - - which is three-one thousands of a second.  Speed matters in a world of global financial markets.  Speed is money.  Speed is power.  Speed means that when picking up the gold coins off the trading floor - - the faster you are the more gold coins you can collect.

As you hit the next pot hole that interrupts your conversation on the latest iPhone - - ask yourself why all the dazzling technological change, but no progress.