Maybe because.....
These were the laborers of yesteryear who would take any job......
And this is who we are stuck with today.....
Anyone doing "infrastructure" work will have to be union. I am sick of these lazy union slobs forcing their way into my savings account.
So he suggests that we now start paying for projects such as these today?
Nine years ago this week, the towers fell, and today there is nothing more than a well groomed hole in lower Manhattan where they once stood. Three Black Rock Canyon (Hoover) Dams could have been built in succession during that time if they applied the means of the day then even without all of the great advancements in construction we have today.
With the rate things get done today, this guy’s justification for major projects to get people back to work is foolish. It most likely will not be until 2021 until something is finished at GZ.
One just needs to look at the proposed memorial park at Shanksville. They don’t anticipate the first phase of the project to be complete until sometime in 2014!
This article is making the argument for spending more stimulus money. No thanks. If Detroit wants to rebuild their city, then let them pay for it. If California needs bailed out, then let them pay for it. I live in Indiana and I want my tax money to stay in Indiana.
Maybe because.....
These were the laborers of yesteryear who would take any job......
And this is who we are stuck with today.....
Great idea, Michael. Why don’t you take your hard earned money and invest in it, and see how you do? Meanwhile, keep your hands off everyone else’s money.
And then they can use that money to payoff friends (again).
It's not about the infrastructure.
I thought the massive “stimulus” bill took care of infrastructure. I’ve seen a number of highway and bridge repair projects completed under that bill.
Projects like the Hoover Damn and Erie Canal can not be compared to the infrastructure projects mentioned. The Erie Canal opened a vast area of this country to commerce and population growth. Hoover Dam wasn’t a mere “make work” project either - it supplied electric power to a large part of the Southwest and encourage another population shift, resulting in new towns, new cities and increased commerce.
Upgrade our Existing Power Systems. Vicki VanZandt, a former Bonneville Power Administration vice president, helped modernize the Northwest’s electrical grid. She co-sponsored the Non-Wire Solutions Roundtable that explored innovative ways to meet increased demand while reducing the need to install more miles of expensive high-voltage wires. By combining new fiber-optic technology and repairing existing equipment, she avoided cutting vast swaths through forests to build new lines.
Maybe I missed something in this, but how, exactly, do fiber optics have anything to do with power transmission?
Oh, an architect once again tells us how to fix society.
The road in front of our neighborhood has been under construction for several years. I’d say we already took that advice...they’re called TOLLROADS.
Fix it First. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that it would cost $2.2 trillion dollars to fix our existing infrastructure systems, from ailing sewage treatment plants to cracked levees. That’s a lot of jobs. These projects do not involve new disruptions of the environment or expensive purchases of rights-of-way. Local governments can identify a shortlist of priority projects like Seattle’s South Park Bridge.
Excellentg idea. But since these are local projects and it is unethical to expect someone in Indiana (for example) to pay for a bridge in Seattle (for example)where can we come up with the money? It can't be federal dollars as that would be wealth redistribution. Stealing money from me to pay for stuff I'll never get any benefit from.
Here's what we can do. Cut federal taxes to the bone. Return all gas taxing authority (beyond the bare minimum needed to maintain existing federal roads) to the states and let them spend their own money on their own projects.
Call a National Infrastructure Convention. We need a national vision that sets long-range strategic priorities, funding, and oversight, and we need states to identify local needs and provide the innovation.
The only national infrastructure that is constitutionally allowed is for defense purposes. Local roads and sewage treatment plants do not contribute to the defense of this country. Therefore the only national convention we need is to figure out how to keep federal government's greedy hands out of our pockets.
Renew the Blue-Collar Middle Class. It's very bad news for a democracy when the blue-collar middle class disappears. The latest federal data show that over the last decade Seattle lost 45,000 manufacturing jobs. On an anorexic diet of unbalanced free trade we have downsized and outsourced too much. Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania and founder of Building America’s Future, points out that for every billion dollars spent on infrastructure, 20,000-40,000 jobs are created.
Accepting the words of democRAT Fast Eddie Rendell on economic policy is like putting the James Gang in charge of bank security.
While rebuilding the middle class is a good thing (as long as it is elevating the poor instead of tearing down the rich) it is NOT a federal government function. For that matter, it's not a local governemnet function. The government putting people on what are essentially welfare chain gangs is not a good idea.
Upgrade our Existing Power Systems. Vicki VanZandt, a former Bonneville Power Administration vice president, helped modernize the Northwest's electrical grid. She co-sponsored the Non-Wire Solutions Roundtable that explored innovative ways to meet increased demand while reducing the need to install more miles of expensive high-voltage wires. By combining new fiber-optic technology and repairing existing equipment, she avoided cutting vast swaths through forests to build new lines.
Excellent idea. Something that the electric generation and supply industry should be attacking. (Please note that not one dime of tax money should ever go to support a private venture such as this)
Implement Conservation Retrofits. Millions of homes and buildings across the nation could be retrofitted with new windows, plumbing fixtures, insulation, solar panels, etc. The energy and water savings from these retrofits would be immense.
Excellent idea. Lowes, homo depot, menards etc would be glad to sell each individual homeowner the materials needed to upgrade their own home.
The City of Seattle recently received a federal grant for residential retrofits. Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy, has spoken eloquently before the Seattle City Council and Mayor McGinn about the great opportunity to provide green jobs and training to disenfranchised inner-city youth and unemployed blue-collar workers.
Here's where the idea turns to crap. What business does anyone have spending money forcibly taken from me to improve somoen else's house? Absolutely none. Spending tax money on ANY private enterprise is criminal!
Restore Infrastructure and Land Simultaneously.
Great idea. The problem is that the watermelons will use it to steal other people's property (again). You know why we call environementalists watermelons? Because they are environmentalist green on the outside but communist red to the core.
Create Multi-Purpose Projects. Storm-water runoff is now the primary culprit in concocting a toxic cocktail for Orcas and other marine creatures, according to People For Puget Sound. The chemicals on our roadways are baked on during dry weather and then flushed by the rain directly into our waterways. We can improve aging stormwater infrastructure and put in place Low Impact Development while saving the Sound. This will create jobs and free Willy from the threat of extinction.
Another great idea for business to address
Build Green Infrastructure.
Good idea. And if it is really feasible, business will find a way to do it.
From sea to shining sea, only 4 percent of the American landscape is set aside for conservation.
So you plan to steal other people's property (say through the endagered species act or some other government theft program) and force it into conservation? Why not just let people determine how to use their own property (as long as they are not injuring anyone else)?
Right here in Puget Sound we have the know-how to build the next generation of high-speed rail cars and to take the next leap in solar-panel technology, while being leaders in recycling, composting, and energy conservation.
Choo Choo!! Unfortunately mass transit almost never works in this country. If it did, business would be beating down the doors to build more rails etc.
Teach American Students About Infrastructure. One reason why infrastructure fell off the national radar is that the topic is almost totally absent from school curricula. It is possible to go right through to graduate school and never understand where your tap water comes from, or the power for your laptop. Think of all the grade-school boys who have been deprived of the opportunity of visiting a sewage treatment plant! We also need infrastructure degrees at our trade schools, community colleges, and universities. We need a multi-disciplinary approach that combines construction and maintenance with beautiful and sustainable design.
Excellent idea. The program is called civil engineering. THe solution is to get the politically correct garbage (like environmentalism) totally out of the schools so we can teach what really matters.
Build Small, Too. Small is beautiful. Worldwide, it is the small-scale infrastructure that will make the biggest difference for public and environmental health. Centralized systems tend to be inflexible, hugely capital-intensive, and unable to serve the growing and dispersed population throughout the world. Solar panels and hot water heating, geothermal energy, rainwater collection, etc. are taking hold in this country and abroad.
Another good idea. Local projects with local control and local money. No reason whatsoever for the fedgov to steal our tax dollars to advance these things at all.
Avoid the Edifice Complex. Large-scale projects will always have their place in the infrastructure palette. However, an over-reliance on them will further bankrupt our nation. Poorly planned, wasteful, environmentally destructive projects will alienate public trust. Building "bridges to nowhere" will get us nowhere.
Federal money linked to federal regulations ("art requirements" ect) always leads to wasteful large scale projects. Always. How much would the big dig have cost without federal involvement?
In the other Washington (D.C.), crafting a national infrastructure plan must be the main entrée on the menu.
Here. I'll do it for you. Federal gas taxes are cut to the bare minimum to support existing federal roads (primarily the section of the interstate highway system that crosses state borders, defense installations and certain water type projects (flood control, navigable waterway control) that affect more than one state). Fuel taxing authority is returned to the states. Every project within the borders of a state is funded, designed, and managed by that state.
Plan complete. There wasn't that easy?
We’re desperate for jobs, so why not put people to work fixing America’s decaying infrastructure?
Well gee,,,,why not????
Thats what your 900freakinBILLION dollar porculous bill was supposed to do.
Didn’t work, did it?
I’m sorry, but is our infrastructure really “falling apart”? On them main, I think not. However, we have so infrastructure in this country, you’re always going to be able to find some percentage that needs repair or replacement. Its so massive in scope that even 1% is huge.
I have 3 letters which refute this argument in totality:
TVA
Becuase all those contruction jobs will be filled by cheap illegal aliens?
As a construction professional I support the building of infrastructure and of the maintenance of infrastructure.
I would especially support the resurgence of the nuclear power industry. The Tennessee Valley Authority is a private/government creation that provides a successful model for getting the work done. Had the TVA plans been carried out, there would be plenty of electric power now.
The Road from Mexico to Canada needs to be built. Interstate 81 needs to be widened along the whole length. A road parallel to I 95 needs to be built. Large areas of urban wasteland need to be leveled. The list is long.
Jim Hill's Canadian transcontinental RR was a private concern that linked business interests accross Canada without government “guidance” and was a success. Because it was an economic success it lasted much longer than the US transcontinental — even though ours was completed with a golden spike and much fanfare.
We’ll all be dead of old age before the environmental impact statements are approved.
President Thomas Jefferson initiated the Gallatin Plan (1808), which outlined a 100-year national vision for canal and roadway development. It laid the groundwork for the Erie Canal, the Intercontinental Railroad, and the Homestead Act.
1817 June 16. -- Jefferson to Albert Gallatin.
"You will have learned that an act for internal improvement, after passing both Houses, was negatived by the President. The act was founded, avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the Constitution which authorizes Congress 'to lay taxes to pay the debts and provide for the general welfare,' was an extension of the powers specifically enumerated to whatever would promote the general welfare...it was never meant they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action...I think the passage and rejection of this bill a fortunate incident...[it] will settle forever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a mere grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a claim of universal power."[5]Source: http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Erie_Canal
There is a massive difference between the Great Depression and today. We are already spending untold billions each year on infrastructure and repairs. Are there any real new projects that need to be built? High speed rail is not practical in most of the country due to low population density.
Imagine trying to build a project like the Hoover Dam or any of the TVA dams in today’s climate. There is no way a major dam project would pass environmental regulations.
In 1929, vast areas of the US had little or no electricity, there were no major highways and rail travel was the only real option.
Workers were literally paid pennies per hour. CCC workers got $25/month, which works out to only $318/month today.
These programs really did nothing to end the depression. They helped some people and got some needed projects completed, but we were still in a depression at the start of WWII.