Okay, so here's the deal. Factory output plummeting? Unemployment going through the roof? What to do, what to do...
Well, that's simple: You do the stimulus plan that was just announced. You pour hundreds of billions of dollars into trains, planes, and subway construction and in other public works projects. You build hundreds of schools, thousands of miles of new highways, and employ millions of people building infrastructure. You build massive numbers of new affordable housing complexes, new hospitals, and new clinics. This is a stimulus plan that can, and will, work, employing people doing real things that add to the economy (as vs. just giving people money to sit on their asses) .
The only problem: It's being done by China, not by the United States. The Chinese government is spending the equivalent of 7% of their GDP to stimulate their economy, far more than any other country has attempted. Oops! Now I have to learn Mandarin if I want a job. Sigh!
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Heck Yes ! I'd LOVE a government paid construction job . Real wages , some kind of bennifits and a chance for stuff like raises !
ReplyDeleteI am a dealer trained and certified auto mechanic and I Know I'd make better money pouring F'in cement on a bridge and get health coverage too !
What a world , what a world .
w3ski
Hey Badtux old bean - I'd recommend learning Mandarin, it's a cool language. All that "tone of voice changing the meaning of the word" stuff will drive you crazy. I'm learning at the minute and it's fascinating stuff. However, the downside of being in the Chinese system of course is the example where state-funded building projects such as those in Beijing for the olympics resulted in loads of people turfed out of their houses, with very little comeback... they must have felt abandoned by the state - sort of like how most of New Orleans still feels today... oh, wait, maybe there aren't so many differences between East and West after all!
ReplyDeleteA greatuncle built the high school my Mother and I both graduated from starting at $5/week with the WPA. He lost his farm to a mortgage that came due when people no longer had money to buy milk.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad built trails and buildings in the Adirondacks starting at the same $5/week in the CCC.
I would rather see the money going to rebuild bridges and roads than to stadiums for professional sports teams, which are taxpayer funded by the same people who say we can't afford high-speed train service in Florida.