Gingerly driving home from northern New Jersey to Boston in a last minute rented car, on a snowy day when the airlines were unreliable and Amtrak was vulnerable to freezing brakes, I crossed over the George Washington Bridge (completed 1931). It was the longest suspension bridge in the world until the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge (1937), which was opened for traffic just after the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge (1936). I also crossed the Triborough Bridge (completed 1936) and drove through the blizzard along a chain of the Northeast's loveliest highways, the Hutchinson River (1937), Merritt (1940), and Wilbur Cross parkways (1949).
Oddly enough, these and other very large scale pioneering public works were launched or completed during the Great Depression, despite a crisis of public finance and a call in some quarters for belt-tightening. Indeed, the Triborough Bridge, now renamed for Robert F. Kennedy, was literally begun on October 29, 1929, the day of the stock market crash; work was suspended until financing was rescued by Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
Did you ever wonder why some of America's greatest public works projects were accomplished during its worst depression? Because that generation of leaders, at every level of government, did not see a depression as a moment for further belt-tightening, but as a time for expansive public activity.
While some of these bridges, dams, tunnels, highways, reclamation and conservation projects were initiated at the state level, most eventually relied on federal help. These and thousands of other New Deal projects employed millions of people, helped the American economy become more efficient and productive, led to breakthroughs in design and engineering, and paid for themselves many times over. When pre-1929 funding dried up, Roosevelt used public funds from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and other public agencies to make sure that projects were expanded, not deferred.
President Obama has the right idea when he calls for major investment in 21st Century infrastructure. But he sends a mixed message when he also calls for a freeze on other domestic spending and cuts in public employment, undercutting the theme of the necessity of government during an economic emergency. The Republicans, meanwhile, are divided between fiscal conservatives who would slash public outlay and tea-party militants who would gut it even further.
The Republican triumph of November 2010 could be short lived. The public is starting to notice just how divided the party is, how destructive and unhelpful is its economic program, and how easily its already far-right "mainstream" increasingly gives into the GOP's lunatic fringe.
Obama, with his characteristic tone of bridge-building and moderation, may hope the gods will smile on him and the Republican Party will self-destruct while he holds the reasonable high ground. But that won't just happen. And he could be helping it along. He should be calling out the GOP's economic crazies, not just appealing to the better angels of the US Chamber of Commerce.
The fact that a majority of the voters who turned out in November 2010 voted Republican should not deter him. Many did not quite appreciate what they were getting. Many more might have turned out, and might do so in 2012, to vote for a Democrat with a better and more compelling story.
We need actual bridge building, as we had during the last great depression, not just metaphoric bridge building.
I started to compose a sentence that referred to the "third-world" condition of America's infrastructure. But that gets it backwards, for the third world today is where a lot of pioneering infrastructure is underway. China has something like one-sixth our per capita GDP. But somehow China can afford high speed rail at more than token levels; as well as large scale conversion to a green economy. As a far richer society, we could be doing even better.
President Obama spoke brave words about a high speed rail system within the reach of 80 percent of Americans within 25 years. This would be an achievement comparable to the great public works of the New Deal. It would revive major industries and supply chains, jump start transportation engineering, increase the efficiency of our economy, and create millions of jobs. But first, we need a politics to support it. That will take more than rhetoric -- it will take real leadership.
I have worked for a number of organizations in my career, as a journalist, activist, and teacher. In every case, the presence or absence of leadership has made an immense difference in an enterprise's success or failure.
This is also the case when it comes to nations. Imagine the world if Gandhi, or Mandela, or Havel had never lived. Or if Lincoln or Rabin or Sadat or King or the Kennedys had not been murdered just when their leadership was most needed. We will soon see whether the skill of Egypt's leaders is equal to the bravery of its people.
Barack Obama could yet prove to be an inspirational leader. The Republicans are setting the table for a real Democratic resurgence. But this will require a far more assertive leader, painting a picture of a very different economy -- a leader not meeting Republicans halfway, but greeting their insane vision of America with the jaunty scorn that it invites.
Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and a senior fellow at Demos. His latest book is A Presidency in Peril.
If you view currency and wealth in such a narrow perspective that it only relates to the bubble that you have created for your existence, then it is easy to feel that it is threatened if someone suggests "investing" some of it in the society that backs it. It will be somewhat of an amusement watching their consternation when the currency they protect so defensively becomes as worthless as the shell of an economy behind it. It'll be a study in hypocrisy watching them as they claim to have been "for" the investment in society all along.
Such garbage. The Dems should be ashamed and they really need to grow up-fast!
What the so-called grownups ushered in was the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. And then left the scene leaving others to try to clean up their mess. There is no way that could have come fast or easy. Now the GOP is back trying to pass as the party of financial rectitude. But they bring the wrong medicine at the wrong time. The fact is that yes we can invest as a country. We will have to bring down the deficit slowly over a long time, and continue to invest in worthwhile projects as we do so that encourage further economic activity. Economics done your and the GOP way will only prolong the misery.
The Republican's and Tea Party would make very poor business people. At the first sign of competition or a drop in revenues, they would sack their workers, and reduce inventory and all sorts of costs so that the decline became irreversible. The other way is to make the positive changes to the business that increase revenues, and costs in the longer term.
The obsession with Government debt, which should not be a cause for great concern, is contrasted nicely against the Republicans complete lack of concern about American private debt levels, that are much higher than public debt, and much more dangerous.
I agree with everything said in the article.
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When one considers that Clinton included the Social Security trust fund in his claimed "surplus" Bush's crime against this nation to further enrich his "base" actually becomes a "crime". All the fervor currently visible in the District of Criminals to "save" Social Security and the echoes of that in the corporate media (including some, so called, "liberal" networks) is nothing but softening the audience for the greater crime to come.
Contrary to all the buzz, America isn't broke. Wall St is posting record profits and big businesses are projecting record earnings. What America lacks, and has for a generation, is the good sense to tax the only people who have money. Until we look back to similar circumstances in our history and realize that 95% of America is being had because 40% of America doesn't understand economics if it can't fit on a bumper sticker. Our economy is in good shape still. It is our experiment in democracy that has failed.
I see a lot of talk about the economy "bouncing back", but if the recovery continues without creating jobs the wealthy may be well advised to caution in boasting of their gains. Desperation meeting affluent bravado may be a caustic mix.
It was the Hoover and the Republicans that instituted the same misguided belt tightening, when the economy needed an injection of money that made things worth. Likes we are going to repeat history.
I can't believe our leaders would cave to oil company donations and be blind sided by the coming rise in oil prices. I guess it will be business as usual in Washington; "Close the barn door,the horse is out".
I realize this is best undertaken by private enterprise but our Government should be helping private industry through loans and incentives to make this happen. $5.00 a gallon gasoline will kill our Country.
Pros and Cons of Ethanol Production - Updated Article With New Information
"...Con 3: In order to produce sufficient sugar cane, farmers in countries like Brazil have to restrict what other crops they can grow. As a result, the commodity prices for basic foods such as flour and wheat can be higher than they would be if ethanol was not produced. In the US, where ethanol is made from corn, the country could not meet all of its needs even if all the available farmland was used exclusively to grow corn..."
1) Convert all "oil" heating to natural gas and lay the infrastructure needed to support it. This would primarily effect the rust belt areas of the east and north central US. We have abundant supplies of natural gas and have been extracting it for decades without major environmental damage.
2) Convert all "fallow" land to hemp production and use hemp fiber to replace as much nylon and polyester as possible. These artificial fibers require oil while the natural fibers could be made more economically, as well as being more environmentally friendly.
1) Use hemp and algae for biodiesel and convert as much of our transportation to diesel as possible. Diesel engines pollute less, get better mileage, and can burn almost any combustible liquid you want to feed them. Hemp is a proven ethanol source and a lot of promise is being shown in projects growing algae for ethanol production.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2007/08/03/LI2007080300854.html
Minneapolis Bridge Collapse...
This would have fixed Main Street two years ago instead of the long term investment. For 2 reasons in my mind, because the roads and bridges will be rebuilt our WALMART need them
1) The Administration and Republicans want to lower wages to meet China for competition
2) Lots of money to be made when interest is at 10% to rebuild the roads and bridges in Contracts
I saw some construction projects funded by stimulus but not near enough.
But life goes on, we have to get something done.
Since the early nineteen-eighties, by contrast, financial blowups have proliferated and living standards have stagnated. Is this coincidence?
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/11/29/101129fa_fact_cassidy#ixzz1DzQVFgg6