In today’s world, incentives drive actions more than rules, laws, or morals. For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, continuous business lies in treatment, not in cures. As a result, pharmaceutical companies are incentivized to focus on ongoing treatments rather than permanent cures, ensuring their business remains active and profitable.
Similarly, the business of politics thrives on problems and issues rather than permanent solutions. Politicians are therefore incentivized to ensure that every solution either creates new problems or only solves issues temporarily, keeping the cycle of political engagement and relevance alive.When it comes to war, the real money is in the ongoing conflict, not in achieving victory. Countries like the USA and other imperial powers rarely seek to completely win wars or eliminate their enemies. Instead, they often leave conflicts unresolved, ensuring future wars and ongoing economic benefits.The same logic applies to infrastructure. If a company builds a high-quality road, bridge, or building that lasts for decades, there is less repeat business. However, if infrastructure needs frequent rebuilding, it generates continuous work and opportunities for profit. Both permanent bureaucrats and temporary elected officials, who typically serve less than a decade, have more opportunities to receive direct or indirect kickbacks if projects need to be redone regularly.
Proposed Solution
A potential solution is to award permanent contracts for roads and other public infrastructure—such as gardens or parks—to companies. These companies would receive a one-time construction payment and a quarterly allowance for ongoing maintenance. This structure incentivizes them to build durable infrastructure and maintain it properly.To ensure quality, an automated system—without human intervention—should routinely check the infrastructure. If the quality does not meet standards, the contract should be re-auctioned, with the current company and its affiliates barred from bidding. Only stock market-listed companies should be eligible for such contracts to ensure maximum transparency. All related work, such as digging, underground cabling, or piping, should be handled by the contracted company. If the government needs to lay new cables or pipes, it should pay the company to do the work. Currently, in countries like India, where corruption is rampant, one government body often waits for a road to be completed before digging it up for underground work, resulting in repeated construction and unnecessary spending.
The compensation for such projects should be based on pre-existing standards, considering factors like road type, thickness, number of layers, and whether it’s a national highway or city road. For underground work, payment should be calculated based on the length, width, and level of service disruption, using a standardized formula. The quarterly allowance should also be adjusted for inflation.
As long as the automated quality checks are passed, payments should be made directly from the central government to the company, and these amounts should be recorded as debt against the state government. This system minimizes opportunities for corruption, as there would be no need for bribes in each transaction.
No lease should be granted to companies outside the state; all projects must be owned by businesses that originated and are based in the state. Owners must be at least second-generation residents. By "business," I mean the company that receives the lifetime maintenance and ownership contract for the road, allowing public use in exchange for a quarterly fee paid by the government on behalf of the public.
For national highways, the government could also lease adjacent land—up to 50% of the total road width—to these companies. This land could be developed for shops, hotels, or rented out to others, providing additional revenue streams for the maintenance companies.
