Look around yourself, do you see plenty of work that needs doing? 
We’re not talking about the dishes in the sink (though, well, this could count if you want to hire a maid service) nor that yet-to-be-completed homework (no, not advocating hiring someone to write that Master’s Thesis for you …), but we’re talking of America’s infrastructure: the schools that require maintenance (and would gain from greening), the bridges that are falling apart, the aging water and sewage systems, decrepit power lines, the potholes in the streets, the decaying backbone(s) of the American economy … The abysmal — and worsening — state of America’s infrastructure isn’t just an embarassment nor only a risk to life and limb but it is a serious drag on the economy and a worsening drag with each passing moment. As the Washington Post titled it is a story today, Gargantuan large’ investment in infrastructure needed.
The U.S. population is forecast to grow by 100 million — a 30 percent increase — before the middle of the 21st century. And right now a nationwide transportation system built in the middle of the 20th century is falling apart.
There isn’t enough money to arrest its decline, and the public is largely oblivious to the need.
Making the investment to build (an airport, a museum, a home, a road, a …) is ‘sexy’ and gets the appeal. Building that infrastructure, however, comes with a responsibility: to maintain (and improve) it over time. Sadly, filling the pothole, fixing the leaking pipes, updating the hospital’s heating system, or sealing the school’s windows doesn’t have the same warm and fuzzy feel as cutting a ribbon at the ground-breaking for the next highway exit.
A current Audi advertisement builds on this failure to invest in maintaining and improving infrastructure:
A benefit of addressing the massive infrastructure investment deficit: it is a major job creator across the country and the money invested, to a great extent, stays in America (in local communities) as it rather hard to outsource jobs improving school insulation, filling potholes, and putting in high-efficiency pumps at local swimming pools. Amid a job crisis, we have an even better situation — there is an excess of workers ready to take these jobs at livable wages (without exorbitant profit-seeking from companies able to pit the U.S. government against other bidders) and the U.S. government has never been in a position to borrow money at such a low rate. We need the investment in infrastructure to improve our economic status. We need the infrastructure investment to put people to work. And, we have the ability to borrow money cheaper today than we might ever be able to do so. And, by investing in improving the infrastructure today, we increase the chance that the infrastructure will be able to support a stronger economy tomorrow.
Work That Needs Doing seeks to highlight the infrastructure needs through crowd-sourcing photographs and to bring these requirements to the attention of Congress.