A Society that Builds, Has.

I hate this idiotic 'free money' business that DC is presenting as economic stimulus. What I prefer is the idea of using the same money for a massive, nation-wide project to rebuild and expand infrastructure. That way most of the money stays in America, rather than getting spent on imported consumer junk from China. It would create millions of jobs in the construction industry and the resulting infrastructure would facilitate American trade for decades to come.

The problem that smart people have with this idea is that it would take too long to get started when we need economic stimulus right now. You'd be spending 18 months to 2 years just doing the engineering studies and preparation before actually breaking ground.

So here's my response to that. Have the first phase of the thing be solely the construction of projects that have already been planned and prepared by state governments. Every state has a laundry list of these things. Roads or bridges or new sections of railroad that have been planned for years, where the transportation studies have been done, the preliminary engineering studies and planning have been finished and everything is ready to go, except that the money just hasn't materialized. You could easily spend $50 billion of stimulus money on these types of projects and have ground breaking happening all over America within the next few months.

We could also be making part of this stimulus package double as education spending by constructing new school buildings in low income areas that haven't had the property tax base to build new schools since the Johnson administration. Then there is the sadly crumbling infrastructure of many of our national parks and forests. Access roads, cabins, ranger stations and picnic areas that haven't been maintained properly and often need to be replaced entirely.

This is where we should be putting the money for economic stimulus. We can start on many of these projects almost immediately - it doesn't have to mean waiting 2 years for results. Handing out 'free money' that's mostly going to end up boosting the Chinese economy is idiotic. It'll be a sugar rush with an impact that will not last beyond a single fiscal quarter of increased consumer spending. We can take that same money and create jobs through the construction industry right away.

The demand for all of that iron and steel used for bridges and other projects would kick the American steel industry into high gear, helping to maintain a crucial industry that has been sadly neglected in this age where we have convinced ourselves that tech jobs behind computer screens can really be the long-term foundation of American prosperity. Boost steel and you boost companies that make machinery and equipment used in mills and mines. You're boosting coke processing and transportation to get all of these materials between the various processing points.

Throwing money at people and asking them to piss it away on consumer junk that came from overseas only reinforces what is going horribly wrong in the American economy. We have got to make things. A society that builds, has. Economic stimulus needs to not only be rapid but it needs to focus on encouraging the employment of Americans to build things.