I have argued in diaries titled Sanity or Insanity, 50 billion dollars is a start, Education, Jobs, Education, and other diaries (see me LWelsch to read these diaries) that we need much more spending (on the order of a trillion dollars short term and 5 trillion dollars long term) to recover in the US and to help the world recover.
Of course more than spending a whole lot of money is needed. A set of world wide corporate regulations need to be set up for multinational corporation and those regulations need to be enforced. The United Nations as currently constituted is inadequate and either needs to be reconstituted with much more power, or needs to be disbanded in favor of a new multinational organization to manage the world economy. The black hawk helicopter (if you do not get the reference there was a time when insane right wingers worried about black hawk helicopters from the UN imposing the will of the UN on the US) assholes are right, the US is no longer capable of steering a course without strong participation of the world.
So how do we get there? We get there through education, a whole lot of education. We Americans need to learn foreign languages like there is no tomorrow. English is not enough. Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic, European languages, and other languages all need to be taught in our schools. Children should be raised learning at least two languages other than English starting at birth. We should aim at every American being fluent in at least three languages and being able to communicate to people on every continent in the world.
Yes we need more history. Not just the history of Europe, but the history of all the continents, not from a European perspective, but as understood by the people of that continent. And then we need culture = many cultures. Through such understanding we can better deal with all people. College needs to be lengthened not shortened as some have proposed.
And this is just education for Americans. Such education is needed for all people in the world. The problem is one of how to achieve these goals and that can only be done through education, education, education.
As for spending, there is so much wealth the US needs to create I don't know where to start. First in my mind is energy. Global warming will kill us all. Cheap energy is the solution. Exploiting the sun's continuous supply is a critical part of the solution. Wind mills, solar cells, ... are important and we need to improve that technology. Research and investment are solutions.
Then there is infrastructure. The county I live in, Montgomery County Maryland, is one of richest counties in the nation. Our water main structure is falling apart. In the past 5 years a major road was flooded so that it could not be used. The transportation system is so crowded that people sit in traffic for long periods of time burning gas. The metro system many use to get to work in DC is overflowing with people and is in frequently in disrepair. At least there are no collapsing bridges. This is in a wealthy county. Imagine what poor counties are like.
And then we have the deficit hawks. These folks are truly insane. As Krugman points out they have not learned the lessons of the Weimar Republic. Put more bluntly:
And here in Germany, a few scholars see parallels to the policies of Heinrich Brüning, the chancellor from 1930 to 1932, whose devotion to financial orthodoxy ended up sealing the doom of the Weimar Republic.
For those who don't remember Hitler came to power because of these policies. We have our own Glenn Beck's and Rush Limbaugh's. Imagine if one of them came to power. The tea party would love that.
I warn in another power that if the insane gain power that war will be result. We must keep the insane at bay and elect more democrats so that some sanity will save us all.
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