| User Blox 4 |
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Barack Obama  |
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Rob Kailey is a working schmuck with no ties or affiliations to any governmental or political organizations, save those of sympathy.
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Thu Dec 04, 2008 at 06:57:37 AM MST
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| Congratulations to Brian Schweitzer for being elected chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. The news came on the heels of the Governors Association urging Obama to invest more money in the nation's infrastructure.
Robert Reich:
So the crucial questions become (1) how much will the government have to spend to get the economy back on track? and (2) what sort of spending will have the biggest impact on jobs and incomes?
The answer to the first question is "a lot." Given the magnitude of the mess and the amount of underutilized capacity in the economy-- people who are or will soon be unemployed, those who are underemployed, factories shuttered, offices empty, trucks and containers idled -- government may have to spend $600 or $700 billion next year to reverse the downward cycle we're in.
The answer to the second question is mostly "infrastructure" -- repairing roads and bridges, levees and ports; investing in light rail, electrical grids, new sources of energy, more energy conservation. Even conservative economists like Harvard's Martin Feldstein are calling for government to stimulate the economy through infrastructure spending. Infrastructure projects like these pack a double-whammy: they create lots of jobs, and they make the economy work better in the future....
Government should also spend on health care and child care. These expenditures are also double whammies: they, too, create lots of jobs, and they fulfill vital public needs.
Bingo. These Wall St. bailouts prop up the existing financial hierarchy of the country. They seem to be aimed to ensure that there's money available to be lent. But the bailouts don't address the recent spate of lost jobs, the accelerating decline of wages for the middle and working classes aggravated by unjust taxation, the shrinking number of people interested in borrowing money.
Investment in infrastructure provides jobs and gives people money to buy houses and health care and consumer goods. And investment in green infrastructure would create good manufacturing jobs around the country. And investment in infrastructure actually provides us with tangible, useful things like bridges, schools, and windmills.
Call it "trickle up" economics. |
| Jay Stevens :: Infrastructure |
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