The US economy tanked in 2007, and is still lagging significantly behind where we would all like it to be. Right now, I don't want to bicker and argue about who did what to whom. I don't want to argue about what can best be done about it. I'm happy to do those things, just at another time.
Right now, I want to argue from an assumption, as a thought experiment. It's often said that government spending on infrastructure construction is a good way to kickstart the economy. It puts people to work, and the net gains eventually outweigh the immediate costs. So let's start from that premise. If government spending on infrastructure is good stimulus for the economy, what form should that infrastructure spending take?
Oh, there's the obvious collapsing bridges and dams, things that need fixing. But what new could we do? What one-time projects would make the United States a better place to live for centuries to come, like rural electrification or the interstates did? What can we build that is, in a word, awesome?
I'll be talking about several possibilities in a series of posts. Each post will be one answer to the question, "What do people need?"
No comments:
Post a Comment