The Best Quick Fix for the Economy

We know that George Bush is an addict (possibly an ex-addict, but the patterns remain the same), so we know how to think of his "quick fix" for the economy. Addicts want it fast, easy and painless. So our economy is in tough shape - if you read Paul Krugman you would have seen this coming five years ago. More serious economists debate in the Times here.

Instead of Bush's ideas, how about we fix this: USATODAY.com - Report: Nation's infrastructure crumbling.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Crowded schools, traffic-choked roads and transit cutbacks are eroding the quality of American life, according to an analysis by civil engineers that gave the nation's infrastructure an overall grade of D.

A report by the American Society of Civil Engineers released Wednesday assessed the four-year trend in the condition of 12 categories of infrastructure, including roadways, bridges, drinking water systems, public parks, railroads and the power grid.

The overall grade slipped from the D-plus given to the infrastructure in 2001 and 2003.

"Americans are spending more time stuck in traffic and less time at home with their families," William Henry, the group's president, said in a statement.

The report said $1.6 trillion should be spent over the next five years to alleviate potential problems with the nation's infrastructure. Transportation alone requires $94 billion in annual spending, the report said.

Read the American Society of Civil Engineers report here. The page is now illustrated with the Minnesota bridge collapse, which happened two years after the report appeared.

Spend money rebuilding our schools, maintaining our highways, rebuilding our rail system. Spend that measly 20 billion on the SF-LA high speed rail - what's 20 billion when we've dumped a trillion into the sands of Iraq?

All that construction money will roll over into the economy, feeding people and generating wealth. Plus we will have - nice schools, secure bridges, good new public transit, and yeah, for bonus points, how about clean drinking water?

Explain to me why this is not practical or possible, but cutting a check for every American, and wasting all that blood and treasure in Iraq, are perfectly rational.

By the way - the ASCE was my dad's professional organization, and I spent my childhood road trips with him admiring bridges, dams and other engineering marvels. Gothic cathedrals, too, but he made steel and concrete personal. Note that the ASCE's pinup calendar features a bridge of the month - this is what makes civil engineers really happy. My dad once sat down in the cafe at Ikea Emeryville, looked at the freeway flyover before him, and said "Oh my, what a beautiful view." He really liked eating lunch while looking at the freeway flyover with the bay lapping in the distance.

What happened to America that we don't listen to our civil engineers anymore? We will build WiFI access for the planet but we don't want to fix the mold in our local schools or prop up the bridge we drive over each day? WTF?

Comments

[Gag Halfrunt]

Sounds like Keynesian economics, which free-market economists look on as heresy.

'Keynes argued that the solution to depression was to stimulate the economy ("inducement to invest") through some combination of two approaches:

* a reduction in interest rates.
* Government investment in infrastructure - the injection of income results in more spending in the general economy, which in turn stimulates more production and investment involving still more income and spending and so forth. The initial stimulation starts a cascade of events, whose total increase in economic activity is a multiple of the original investment.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics

[Leila]

So-called "free-market" economists live in a fantasy world. I am not interested whether such persons disapprove of Keynesian economics. Investment in infrastructure made this country rich and gave us a middle class.

Free market economic ideas usually just mean jiggling the market to allow the powerful a free hand to reap profit and contribute nothing to humanity or the planet. The alleged freedom of the market is a myth and has never existed. There are always controls, regulations, supports to one player or another.

[Gag Halfrunt]

I know, I don't believe in free-market economics either.