Monday, January 5, 2009
Economy rant
I heard Obama on tv about two weeks ago. I want to share this with you because it's been on my mind ever since. President Obama was saying some wonderful things (as he always does). He was talking about the economy and the way to create more jobs in America is to rebuild the infrastructure of our country just as President Eisenhower kept us out of recession by building America's highways. This makes total sense. We can create tons of jobs by improving mass transit on a local and national scale. Why don't we have bullet or mag-lift trains here in America? Airlines are a dying industry, they pollute way too much and are run inefficiently. As proof to that almost every US airline has declared bankruptcy in the last 10 years. Is this industry stable...obviously not. So instead of trying to resurrect a dying industry let's look at technology that will make this country run more efficiently and cause less pollution.
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Right on Michelle. If Obama plays his cards right, and is able to succeed in investing as much money as he says he will in our infrastructure(~$800 billion), I think 50 years from now we'll be very proud to have voted for one of the most successful/influential presidents of all time. It's just the right time to do it. I say let the "big three" get what has been coming to them for so long. But What about all the hard working "blue collar" workers? The answer is a massive federal funding program for our countries pathetic infrastructure. Even better is a environmentally friendly infrastructure plan, including high-speed rail, new services along our freeways for electric/alternative fuel cars, and finally moving forward with new forms of energy such as solar/wind farms, and ocean current energy
ReplyDeletehttp://ocsenergy.anl.gov/guide/current/index.cfm
Once again, California is trying to lead the way with the countries first high-speed rail system that would link Sacramento to San Fran and Los Angeles. Imagine, you could get from San Fran to LA in 2.5 hours for ~$50. And the amount of energy used to do that would be negligible compared to what we do today! Check this link for more info
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/california-votes-on-high-speed-rail.php
California would just be the beginning. It's system could be and should be a model for the entire country.
As it says in the article above, this is the perfect time to take all of the "blue collar" workers that are struggling to find work right now, and turn them into "green collar" workers right here in our own country.
Thanks for the info and the links! I checked out the website treehugger.com They have tons of useful information & articles.
ReplyDeleteIt seems crazy that it costs more to ride the bus than to run a four person vehicle for a lot of my trips.
ReplyDeleteI saw an article that said Obama's proposal for the mix of fed funds would lean a bit more toward mass transit. Something like from 80/20 (highway/mass) to 70/30.
Something I guess.
It's a race to inflate our way out of economic difficulty with short-term fixes that strap our future with debt we'll never repay at the expense of the poor countries we pretend to care about.
ReplyDeleteThe airline industry is not dead. The newer, cost-cutting airlines that are focused on core business are more profitable. Jet Blue, Southwest, etc.
This country is far too big and sparsley populated for profitable, nationwide, mass transit. I don't have stats, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that government-run mass transit in this country is generally unprofitable (ex. Amtrak). If someone wants to do it privately with limited, profitable service, no one is stopping them. We do not need more bloated government spending on unprofitable endeavors paid for by the decreasing percentage of us who actually pay significant taxes.
scott