It is becoming increasingly clear that America is in deep trouble. The problem is not just the real estate bubble that currently fills the news. To mention just a sampling of our problems, the entire financial industry is staggering like a drunkard three steps away from passing out. A major investment bank was recently saved from collapse only by what amounts to a government bailout. Both unemployment and inflation are much worse than the government's cooked books reveal. Anybody who thinks oil prices will come down soon, or that opening the Alaskan North Slope will save us, ought either to seek treatment for their delusions or quit smoking whatever they are smoking. The same might be said for those who either deny global warming or believe it is unrelated to human activity. There is a looming shortage of fresh water. Feel free to add your own favorite crisis. The point is that we have some major things we had better attend to in a hurry.
We will not extract ourselves from the great dilemmas we face until we make fundamental changes in our economy, our energy technologies, and our culture. If the next administration is Republican, I recoil in dismay when I think of the consequences. People like John McCain don't even see the problems, let alone having given any realistic thought to solutions. They'll no doubt put all their energy into expanding the insane war in the Middle East, building walls and machine-gun towers along the Mexican border, and keeping their followers distracted with endless noise about abortion and homosexuality while the nation falls into the abyss.
Assuming we are wise enough to elect a Democratic President and a solidly Democratic Congress this fall, I would hope to see us make massive commitments of resources in five major areas.
First, I think we need something like an FDR-style public works initiative. We should put people to work rebuilding the infrastructure the Republicans have ignored since 1981--and while we're at it, build a nationwide high-speed rail system. Rail is a far more efficient way to move freight than trucks. We should use trucks only for local distribution--get them off the Interstates, thereby saving not only the vast quantities of fuel they consume, but the necessity of constantly rebuilding our roads.
Second, let us commit to a Green Revolution. Let's get serious about alternative energy and conservation. We must invest some real money in developing new battery technologies, combined with developing solar, wind, tidal, and other methods of power generation. No single one of these technologies will replace coal and oil, but a combination can do so. We also must develop new ways to heat & insulate buildings.
Third, let us hasten the information revolution. It's a lot easier to move electrons around than big, lumpy things. We can and must develop interactive, public super communication systems. Few people seem aware of the fact, but the skeleton of a new optical-fiber "grid" system has already been built in Europe and America. It will have a bandwidth 10,000 times greater than the present Internet—suffidient to download a full-length movie in 2 or 3 seconds. People don't need to physically fly around to meet and consult with each other if they can do virtual meetings with videophone-type technology.
Fourth, as wealth is created, it should be distributed among the people responsible for its creation. To my way of thinking, that means the workers, not just the Wall Street financiers. If a technological innovation decreases the net amount of work that has to be done, we shouldn't respond by firing people. We should increase their wages commensurate with their increased productivity and shorten the work week.
Fifth, let us see to it that all our people have adequate health care, enough to eat, decent housing, and universal educational opportunities. This would of course include higher education for all who have the aptitude and desire. We have a university system built on a Medieval model; it is far past time to take advantage of all the new technologies & distribute access to learning to everyone everywhere.
Only a people who are free of fundamental worries about their ability to survive can be free to dream, to invent, and to build. To have meaning, opportunity for advancement must exist on a realistic and attainable level, not just as a theoretical ideal.
How do we fund this grand scheme? First by realigning our priorities. Call a truce in the War on Drugs. End the war. Quit building prisons and get serious about criminal rehabilitation. And, finally, in the same way the Republicans are now funding the war. If it's OK to borrow money for tremedously destructive purposes that benefit nobody but the war industry, and to bail out the wealthy owners of an imprudent financial industry that created many of the problems we are now facing, then why can't we borrow for creative purposes, for capital improvements in our nation? In short, we must abandon the radical, failed trickle-down economic theories of the last few decades and resume our traditional American perspective that encourages, values and rewards the hard work of the common person.