The Western part of this country still derives huge economic benefit (setting aside the - considerable - environmental impact) from the dams built by the WPA, as do others. FDR made investments; many of them are still paying dividends.
Those investments would not have happened without the calamity of the Great Depression, period. From an economic point of view, they should have; the "outrageous" prices Californios I know pay for electricity are about half what I pay here in Houston. That's pretty much true wherever there are dams.
It's time for high speed rail.
Were it not heavily subsidized, our outrageously polluting, ruinously expensive domestic air industry would be much, much, smaller. I have every sympathy for the workers in that industry, and would insist on provisions to aid them but global warming has already doomed that industry - or our planet - to extinction.
We should immediately plan and begin construction of high speed electric rail along our coastlines, with links to Chicago and Detroit, Chicago to Atlanta, Chicago to Denver to Houston, etcetera.
It will be a huge endeavor and it's a big enough project that we can employ pretty much as many workers as we want pretty much anywhere we want to. So what are the other advantages?
- We can seize the leadership in a technology that everyone planetwide is eventually going to need - instead of ceding it to Japan, China - or even France.
- We can reduce the number of dangerous, polluting trucks on our roads.
- We can dramatically reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil - with all the implications implied.
- Our auto industries could be led into production of the engines, coaches, etc. If they are subsidized to move away from the internal combustion engine (in automobiles also), they will have no problem surviving, and should prosper.
- You can't fly a train into a building. Security will be a concern on trains also, of course, but fewer planes in the sky will mean that security efforts can be concentrated.
- And this one may be the most important: A properly designed high speed rail system would be fast and cheap, providing the kind of long-term competitive advantage to US businesses that cheap electricity and the national highway system did in earlier days. It truly is an investment, and it will pay dividends.
It's time for some real leadership from our representatives - and I haven't seen much of that from our status quo lovin "leaders" since JFK.
Are you listening, Mr. President?