This example is a podcast of a conversation between Carter Williams of iSelect and Tom Fiddaman of Ventana.

The United States has an infrastructure problem.

By some estimates, America needs about $3 trillion of investment in its critical infrastructure to support its crumbling bridges, highways, dams and other structures. That’s a big number. The American Society of Civil Engineers’ grades our infrastructure as a D+, and the World Economic Forum ranks the U.S. 16th in overall infrastructure quality, behind France, Spain and Japan.

The good news is that, if you go to Washington today, about the only thing that people in government can agree on is the need for more infrastructure investment. It’s a central issue that we all, as a country, need to solve together. And we know that. But, even despite this massive need, it just isn’t happening.

Worse, there is about $20 trillion sitting on the sidelines in pension funds and other funds that could be used to support these types of projects. The returns are there, the investors are interested, but people just aren’t investing in infrastructure yet. Why not?

Listen in or read the transcript at iSelect.