In terms of countries with the best quality of infrastructure, the United States has consistently been ranked somewhere between roughly 15th and 25th for many years. The most recent World Economic Forum ranking puts the United States at number 16.

You can tell by our commutes. When you compare the United States and Europe, the United States has the third worst average commute time at just under 50 minutes. We're barely beating Romania and Hungary....

Infrastructure isn't just about long roads. Infrastructure also includes bridges, railroads, manmade waterways, and more. One has to look no further than the catastrophe we saw during Hurricane Katrina, when the levees keeping the water back broke, to see that there are systemic problems. New York during Hurricane Sandy was another tragedy. And in 2007, an eight-lane, steel bridge near Minneapolis collapsed with dozens of cars on it and killed 13 people. Infrastructure failures can be very dangerous.

Whether it's because of financial interests or just partisan politics, recent efforts to begin rebuilding our infrastructure have failed. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a candidate for president, recently introduced the Rebuild America Act, but it has received little support. The bill proposes spending $1 trillion on infrastructure over five years, which would create a lot of jobs. "A $1 trillion investment in infrastructure could support 13 million decent-paying jobs and make our country more efficient, productive, and safer," Sanders said during a speech in February. He points out that the Iraq War is said to have cost over $3 trillion. For a Congress that is constantly ranting about job creation, it's a little suspect that it's not hastily picking up this bill.