I’m sick of hearing the phase “America’s crumbling infrastructure” from the press and politicians. They have been pushing this theme for at least 18 months now. Observers should look for the motive behind all such recurring news themes, because nothing gets on the air on into print without one.
In this case, we are clearly being prepped for New Deal #2, involving at least the following programs:
- Public works projects. A resurrection of the Works Progress Administration (aka WPA or “We Piddle Around”).
- Green energy waste. The Tennessee Valley Authority with a touchy, feely twist. Al Gore, administrator?
- Neverending War in Asia. That’ll lick unemployment for good!
From Bloomberg, here are the latest brilliant ideas from the Senate:
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) — Senate Democrats proposed a $56 billion economic stimulus package that would increase government spending on unemployment benefits, food stamps, infrastructure projects, aid to state governments and heating aid to the poor.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said today that the legislation is needed to help millions of Americans struggling with the slow economy.
“We must not forget Main Street as we work to address the crisis on Wall Street,” he said, adding that the plan would “create hundreds of thousands of good-paying American jobs and prevent cuts in critical services for millions of Americans.”…
The Senate plan would extend unemployment benefits by as many as 13 weeks, expand food stamp aid and provide states coping with high Medicaid costs with an additional $20 billion in federal assistance.
Highway Projects
The plan would also spend $11 billion on highway and other transportation projects, $5.1 billion for heating assistance to the poor, $1.2 billion for the National Institutes of Health and $250 million for NASA.
Will Keynesianism never die?
Politicians and bankers love this repressive and discredited doctrine because it justifies all manner of scams. Today’s professors won’t admit it, but they haven’t changed a bit since falling hook, line and sinker for Orwellian nonsense that intentionally punishes savings and private investment, maintains a dumb consumer class, and allocates full freedom and power only to a ruling class of “philosopher kings”. They tinker around the edges of this egomaniac’s* theory, but they assure us that without the State pulling the levers (following their guidance of course), the economy will crumble down to the stone age.
The last thing America needs in a Depression is more government involvement in the economy, especially not government jobs for government-designed projects. This just steals from the sensible and allocates to the connected, while wasting the capital on unneeded projects with negative returns.
Relax, go for a drive.
The highway and other infrastructure in the US is among the best in the world, especially the road system. I have driven in a lot of places, and nothing beats four lanes each way with stadium lighting, fast and even drainage, huge reflective and logical signage, and perfectly cambered cloverleafs. It is just a joy to drive when you come back after being away. And by the way, American motorists, even New Yorkers, are very safe and considerate by world standards. The are not the Swiss, but we can’t all be.
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* Here is a character study (PDF) of the most-revered economist of the 20th century by one of the smartest and most honest economists of the same, Murray Rothbard, who’s writing happens to be a joy to read. How many Keynesian professors can you say that about?
There is lots more on Keynesian economics here, from America’s real libertarian think tank, the Mises Institute (not The Stato Foundation).
Agreed about the danger of pork – but what about the waste of unemployed millions sitting at home contributing nothing, an increase in crime, and so on? In the US and Western Europe they were building roads in the middle of Nevada, in Germany they were building weaponry, in Eastern Europe they started the Communist Party and took power at the first disruption there was – WW2.
Alex, the whole point is that government brings about and worsens depressions. They would be fewer, milder and shorter if it did not step in and grab capital and labor that would be otherwise intelligently deployed.
For instance, in 1907, before the Federal Reserve and other bureaucracies existed (although a government-sponsored banking cartel created the bubble that preceded the crash), a Panic bankrupted nearly every financial institution in the US. The economy came roaring back within months, because the government did nothing to interfere.
The depression of the 1930s was so bad because every government in the western world had been or would be taken over by fascists or other socialists. The environment of poverty and nationalism that ensued left the world ripe for war.
I don’t agree that our infrastructure is the best in the world, but that can turn into a subjective argument that’s unfit for the web.
What I don’t understand, though, is who you think would fix infrastructure when you are satisfied that it’s crumbling? It’s fine to complain about government intervention, but since this stuff isn’t going to last forever, who’s supposed to fix it?