I've had these three ideas in my head for ages. I am not nearly the first to mention them and we’re not talking rocket science here either. If we want to create a ton of jobs and also build infrastructure there are three things that can be done yesterday if the Republican Congress would just do something.
Rural, Internet Access
I live in a small rural town. But lucky because it was a test market for AT&T Home (their Internet service). Now no more, but the network was bought by Charter Communications. I have a 100Mbps connection for $49.95/month.
Staying at my parents house and their Verizon DSL connection is so slow I can't even watch House of Cards on Netflix.
I also can't do work for clients in a timely fashion, because I need a pretty "nice" connection to FTP files.
I assume I am not alone here. We should just drop many hundreds of billions and wire, with fiber, directly into homes in all rural and even major metro areas, starting with schools and government buildings.
Next Gen Cell Phone Network
No matter what cell phone companies say in their commercials we don't have a world-class cell phone network. Go to the EU or Japan and you will see what we have is sad.
As with the Internet our network is not what most first world nations have. Slower and more expensive at the same time. Not a good combo.
Just upgrade the thing across the board.
Not only would these two ideas create jobs directly, it would create many indirectly. How many folks in this little town I am in would like to purchase Netflix or another service that requires a fast Internet connection?
Could there be another Steve Jobs in rural Iowa now how doesn't have the bandwidth to well, FTP large files? Or can't video chat with somebody in Germany that has the same idea and whats to work with her?
Solar On Every School, Post Office, Public Building
This is kind of my "big" idea, but I don't feel it is that stunning or complex in the making. Put solar on every public school, post office, library, you name it.
Heck seems it would pay for itself with the building not paying as much for power, if at all. If Congress doesn’t want to pay for it, issue bonds and let the cities pay back what they would have just paid in power bills. Then the power that all the school generates, you know over the summer break when the buildings are not being used to capacity, could go to the communities where they are located.
Conclusion
Again none of this is rocket science. We know what needs to be done and how to do it. Heck with fiber directly into households there are actual models we could follow. Sweden did it. Offered huge tax breaks to Internet providers if they would (1) wire fiber directly into households and (2) allowed other companies to offer services over the lines, even direct competitors, if they wanted the tax break.
I can’t even wrap my mind around the number of jobs this would create and we’re not even talking yet about building roads and bridges. Sure their would be push back. Maybe Verizon or Comcast might throw a fit. But other companies like Disney that would love to charge to stream their content to rural America or Cisco I’d assume wouldn’t mind selling hundreds of millions in hardware would be all in.