Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Let's discuss the President's infrastructure investment ideas. I have said for some time that the secret to getting out of this recession rests one three things:
1. Stock market recovery (check)
2. Housing recovery ( getting there)
3. The fate of Joe Six Pack (middle-aged, high school educated guy in trades, construction, or manufacturing). I think this last one is the weakest link.
It seems that infrastructural investments, through public-private partnerships would be a great way to get Joe back to work and to create things that we could all look back on in our golden years with pride. New bridges, highways, monuments, rail lines, ports, airports, campgrounds, community colleges, schools, fitness trails, business parks,etc.
Great civilizations have always invested in the future. The questions are how, for what, and where.
My short-term interest is in the locations and activities that will yield the biggest bang for the buck.
We should do these things as a nation. Sadly, the conservative party hates President Obama because his very being represents their collective greatest fears, and so to justify their irrational hatred, they have to pretend that everything that the President suggests is some radical plan bent on turning America into a different nation. It is sad, because most of this type of spending used to be fairly uncontroversial.
conservatives continue to drift further and further away from reality.
I see that you are having fun with number and rhetoric. What you are doing is using loose language and combining various programs together to get a number larger than the tax breaks offered to working individuals.
Even if we use your dubious rhetoric, not a single category adds up more to tax cuts received by individuals. Nice try, but no cigar.
You claim that a vast majority were handouts, disproportionately to bankers, and the best you can come up with is $7 billion out of a $840 billion stimulus billion. Again, you don't know what was in the stimulus and are making things up. How is $7 billion dollars the largest "handout" in the stimulus bill? Government contractors? Why even include them?
Again, you have to group various programs together to get a larger number than tax cuts to working individuals. Your language is dubious at best because you probably assume that these were passed to appease campaign donors and to give people free stuff to vote Democrat. It is dishonesty at its finest.
Yes I do like numbers, very much.
Since it seems my point about etiquette and tactics in debate has gone over your head - and as it seems this is unlikely to change, I leave both understanding it and circling back to the core topic making a determination on whether or not moderates and conservatives should at this point take Obama on faith on under-detailed spending programs ostensibly focused on infrastructure as an exercise to the reader, with full access to both the entire posting history and the underlying (linked) data.
It has enriched the quality of life for virtually every American.
It has saved the lives of at least 187,000 people.
It has prevented injuries to nearly 12 million people. It has returned more than $6 in economic productivity for each $1 it cost.
It has positioned the nation for improved international competitiveness.
It has permitted the cherished freedom of personal mobility to flourish.
It has enhanced international security.
We have bridges and highways across the country that need major work. Where are you living that the brigdes are all new??? Remember the bridge collapse in the midwest not too long ago? We have a lot of infrastructure that could be rebuilt.
I use 3 major bridges almost daily to cross the Ohio River. They all work fine.
I can leave my house tonight and be anywhere in the United States within a matter of hours using current infrastructure. No problem. Millions use our infrastructure everyday without snafus, so when people say our infrastructure is in shambles the are naive.
If a bridge needs repaired then it should be repaired.
Liberals operate under this simplistic notion that building crap to build it somehow helps the economy. lols.
You might be an economic illiterate if you think that the government building roads produces demand for roads and not the other way around.
It has enriched the quality of life for virtually every American.
It has saved the lives of at least 187,000 people.
It has prevented injuries to nearly 12 million people. It has returned more than $6 in economic productivity for each $1 it cost.
It has positioned the nation for improved international competitiveness.
It has permitted the cherished freedom of personal mobility to flourish.
It has enhanced international security.
The Interstate highway system was driven by consumer economic demand.
I said you can't just build something for no reason in order to improve an economy. The highway system was built for a reason. Consumer economic demand.
You might be an economic illiterate if you think that the government building roads produces demand for roads and not the other way around.
Since it seems my point about etiquette and tactics in debate has gone over your head - and as it seems this is unlikely to change, I leave both understanding it and circling back to the core topic making a determination on whether or not moderates and conservatives should at this point take Obama on faith on under-detailed spending programs ostensibly focused on infrastructure as an exercise to the reader, who has access to both the entire posting history and the underlying (linked) data.
I know that you like numbers. You like to have fun with numbers, as well as with rhetoric. This has nothing to do with moderates or conservatives, but you are bent on making this partisan issue.
Getting back to the topic, investing into America at this point is a no-brainer. Not only does our infrastructure need attention, but we can borrow for basically free at this point in time. Given our high UE rate and AD deficiency problem, this would help alleviate two issues at once.
Improving our infrastructure, particularly in our big metropolitan areas, not only improves their sustainability, it improves their economic performance. How much money is lost each year just from delays? It's in the billions.
Laughable to think our infrastructure is competitive. Maybe 50 years ago, but we've added a boatload of people since then. China erects entire subways systems in the blink of an eye, while we sit around mulling possible light rail extensions. Embarrassing.
Our top five CSAs alone (NY, LA, DC, SF, CHI) account for 25% of our nation's GDP. Improve their efficiency, along with our other big metros, and you improve our nation's economy. Simple asthat.
It is naive to think that the same people that designed and maintained the roads that are clogged with traffic are somhow gonna fix it.
Read this book. Shows how privitization of the transportation system would fix traffic jams. Curtail pollution, eliminate DUIs and speeding and all kinds of other things that are only problems because the roads are public. Driving a car in L.A. could be enjoyable again instead of a life-threatening endeavor.
The interstate highway system was driven by consumer economic demand.
I said you can't just build something for reason in order to improve an economy. The highway system was built for a reason. Consumer economic demand.
You might be an economic illiterate if you think that the government building roads produces demand for roads and not the other way around.
No demand? Get real. It is well established fact that congestion and traffic delays contribute to economic losses every year, $4 billion more today than in 2008. As the economy improves it will only get worse.
But please, tell us more about how things are fine and dandy in your neck of the woods. Your anecdotes are powerful evidence.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Where are you living that the brigdes are all new??? Remember the bridge collapse in the midwest not too long ago? We have a lot of infrastructure that could be rebuilt.
