Great Works Projects...

[Gavin]

Ok...Jumping on my High Horse. Beautiful views from up here

The last real Great Works Projects we have done as a Country was probably the Hoover Dam. Started in 1931, so 80 plus years ago.
Before that: Panama Canal (started by France, finished by US). Then the Transcontinental Railroad. Then the Erie Canal before that.

But really we use to do big projects. We don't anymore. Too expensive some say. No money for it. We find a way to do expensive Wars...but that is a different thread.

Why not? Is it really just the money. Isn't creating jobs AND doing important work worth the expense?

And if we did, what should we do?

Some people call them "make work" programs and are against them as the government should let the private sector do them. I don't see them as make work...they are making jobs AND providing needed services (infrastructure etc).

So my Great Work Program for Today. Government hires enough people to bring unemployment down to 6%. All those workers are trained in various jobs in the manufacture of Solar Panels (some in the production of crystals, some in the wiring and frames, some in packaging etc etc...even some for making the buildings and roads and such. 100,000 jobs and more all making solar panels and roof top racks and such. Then those panels are offered free (or insanely cheap or in exchange for the excess energy produced) to every house and every business and every farm and just cover every roof top in the country.

And when the panels are cheap or free, suddenly it isn't just New Mexico that shows using solar as profitable. Suddenly every State, every house can show benefits...even in places with clouds and rain...Some solar is better than no solar when cost is removed.

And suddenly we have Zero energy problems. Zero energy dependance and then we start selling the panels around the world. We would be the world leaders in solar energy and solar production.
Within 50 years the US would have no energy issues and slowly neither would the World.

A World without energy issues is a much much safer World. A healthier World. Sure we would not be a World without hate and war, but we would be a World with much less reason for hate and war.

Let's Do It.

I already have the Slogan. The United States: Making the Sun our Bitch since 2013. Over time it can change to: The Earth: Making the Sun our Bitch since .....

Gavin

[Shinysideup]

 I wonder about the math of using oil to make solar panels... does it really pan out, all the plastics?

As far as Great Works, how about rebuilding national passenger trains. I'm not talking about stupid crazy expensive inefficient bullet trains; rather just to the point we were in in 1920, the envy of the world, 100 mph everywhere. Now, our rail system is the envy of Bulgaria. Trains are really really energy efficient, especially electric ones like in, say, Germany.

Part of the reason we have so many cars is they enabled suburbia and commuting. The old electric Interurbans would have been great, had not GM, Standard Oil, and Firestone bought them all up and trashed them. What that right-of-way would be worth now!

I'd love to be able to jump on an express train in downtown San Francisco and be in downtown LA in 4 hours by train instead of spending almost the same amount of time dealing with airport craziness.

Centering food production, work, and living in small communities would not only cut down the need for transport, but might even allow us to get to know and care about our neighbors.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

[Brammofan]

Of course, the good thing about using oil to make plastics is that it's a form of carbon sequestration. That oil will not be burned up and released into the atmosphere.