Shunnnnnn The Non-believers... Shuuuunnnnnah

Clearly Obama has been reading my blog (he probably feels beholden to the primary vote I cast in his favor).

I love the idea of $60 billion in infrastructure spending... it is what we here at Think, Dammit! call "investment spending" with a big fat local return. A nice, productive kind of economic stimulation. Plus we need it, desperately. Has anyone wondered why we haven't had a substantial build out of the highway system in decades? Why hasn't anyone insisted that infrastructure keep up with the number of cars on the roads? It's bizarro.

I also love the idea of "green collar jobs" and green stimulation spending although I'm a little less clear on how that would work. I am anxious to hear more about this. Green energy has a chance to become the next boom... not in terms of bubbles (although, *sigh, that will likely happen), but in terms of driving real economic growth (like the tech boom). Plus it has other return potential... like, oh, energy independence and wrecking less destruction on the planet.

Little things.

Tax cuts and rebates to stimulate an increase in consumer spending (i.e. more cheap imports) have their benefits but you can't make a steady diet of it and it's not the kind of economic policy we need right now. It's time for the government to invest in this country's future.