Sunday, November 09, 2008

Opportunities

JFK said that the Chinese characters for crisis mean danger and opportunity. Apparently, he was wrong about that, but the present economic crisis provides a fine opportunity to do something that I did not expect would happen without a huge struggle: rebuild the nation's infrastructure. As Robert Reich points out, spending government money--despite the huge deficit already in prospect--is by far the best way to pull ourselves out of what he calls a mini depression. Indeed, even conservative economists like Martin Feldstein are calling for using infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy. If the Obama administration plays the cards right, it might be able to get a major commitment to rebuilding the nation's physical assets through Congress before next summer. That would be a major achievement even in four years. If passed quickly, it could be the cornerstone of the most effective effort to use government as a way to make the nation stronger since the 1930's. (I am excluding WWII from my calculus intentionally, as military strength is necessarily narrow in focus.)

2 comments:

Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper said...

Requesting forgiveness in advance for piggy backing on your post.

Let's hear it for great minds thinking alike.

Here is a link to my post of early October on the subject of jobs and infrastructure.

http://leesvoicecryinginthewilderness.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post_07.html.

The Old New Englander said...

No need to apologize! Thanks for pointing us to your post.