'Asset recycling' is 1 piece of the bipartisan infrastructure deal that could prove controversial

published 24 June 2021

The bipartisan infrastructure proposal revealed Thursday has a long list of pay-fors. Among them is something called "asset recycling," or, as it might otherwise be known, "a fancy way of turning public infrastructure into private infrastructure."

Critics, however, are far less convinced. In practice, they argue, asset recycling would "fleece the country's public works, the common institutions we all paid to build, and allow private companies to control them," writes The American Prospect. As HuffPost's Kevin Robillard notes, we can take Australia, the birthplace of asset recycling, as an example. Officials ended the practice after just two years, saying they were "concerned" the initiative encouraged privatization "without appropriate consideration or analysis of future costs," per ITPI. A similar venture in Chicago wherein the city sold 36,000 parking meters to Wall Street investors has continued to prove itself a headache for officials and taxpayers alike, reports the Prospect.

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Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.

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