Donald Trump contrasts the gleaming airports of Dubai and Qatar with grungy American airports such as LaGuardia and Newark. “Our airports are like from a Third World country,” he complained at the first presidential debate.
Yes, the U.S. infrastructure is a mess – in part because Republican congresses haven’t wanted to pay for upgrades. But it’s odd for Trump to praise Dubai and Qatar because, as Laura Bliss writes, below, much of their gleaming infrastructure has been built by lowly paid and often poorly treated migrant workers from South Asia. As Human Rights Watch noted in its 2016 report, these workers are subject to human trafficking and abuses that amount to forced labor. About 90 percent of the populations of Dubai and Qatar are foreigners, mostly low-paid migrants. Does Trump not know?
金門大橋、胡佛水壩、林肯隧道......這些始建於大蕭條時期、富蘭克林·D·羅斯福總統新政下的公共工程，目前仍在使用之中。
川普能否發揮他建造的特長，打造出令美國人引以為豪、讓子孫後代受益無窮的東西，讓分裂的美國重新團結一致，並提振美國的經濟與社會現況？
羅斯福新政造就了不少讓美國人引以為豪的基建項目和地標建築，歐巴馬卻在這一領域毫無建樹。如果川普想讓美國團結一致、提振經濟，基建或許可以讓美國恢復偉大榮光。
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