Decisions for Tomorrow The following section provides estimates of time spent in traffic delays. Stagnant Infrastructure Investment Over the last several decades the United States has allocated about 2.5 percent of GDP to public infrastructure. About a fourth of this investment comes from the federal government and the remainder from state and local governments. In 2019 total spending was about $450 billion, just 2.3 percent of GDP. At that rate of investment, the United States has barely been able to maintain existing infrastructure, much less expand it. The American Society of Civil Engineers says that 4,095 of the nation's 85,000 dams are in need of repair. They estimated that the nation's infrastructure-everything from highways to sewers-needs a $3.6 trillion upgrade. The Cost of Delay The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that people now spend nearly 3.5 billion hours a year in traffic delays. If the nation's highways don't improve those delays will skyrocket to more than 4 billion hours a year a decade from now. That's a lot of labor resources to leave idle. Moreover, cars stuck on congested highways waste a lot of gasoline-nearly 4 billion gallons a year-and spew enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. If the average worker produces $100 of output per hour, what is the opportunity cost of Instructions: Round your responses to the nearest whole number. a. current traffic delays? $[ billion b. estimated delays in 10 years (assuming no change in worker productivity)? $1 billion