We generally take the concept of infrastructure spending to be a good idea.

Building a bridge, preventing a river from flooding, constructing a new runway to provide added transit capacity, these are things that make life better for our children. But inherent in the very concept of infrastructure is the idea of physical things. The rising progressive demand for investment in “social” infrastructure is to co-opt the word “infrastructure” and redefine it. The actual plan of social infrastructure is to send more money to particular voting groups. This is not infrastructure.