Why Violists are Dangerous

This is not directly related to my day-to-day job. This is just something that annoys me about the territory.

Background Info:
I am a member of a professional organization that is dedicated to Adult Education and Continuing Education in Pennsylvania (but I won't tell you the name of the organization). This organization helps with professional development and training for teachers (good) AND is involved in advocacy/lobbying (not always good). Often their advocacy emails seem rather bossy. Today's email was one of those ones.

Today I got an email from one of the major chairpersons in this organization. It was encouraging me (in rather forceful and authoritative terms) to call Senators Casey (D-PA) and Spector (R-PA) to ask that they vote in favor of Sen Leahy's (D-VT today has been R-VT in the past) amendment to add funding for adult education to the Stimulus Package that has been wrangling its way through Congress. (Those of you who know me, know what I did in response).

Now, I'm no economist. I'm no capitalist and I'm no socialist. (Yeah, I just don't like absolutes). But I have some thoughts here.

ARE YOU ******* KIDDING ME???? I am all for better funding for education, but this is not where it belongs. I would support such an amendment to an EDUCATION BILL. Not to this stimulus package. There should be NOTHING in this bill that will not create jobs (and I mean LOTS OF JOBS) in the next year or so. Adult Education is great and it helps people find better work, but better education will not help much if there are no jobs. Right now, people with advanced degrees are having trouble finding work. Having a GED or an accounting certificate is not going to help you much when CPA's with MBA's are out of work and applying for the same job openings available to someone with a lesser education.

This stimulus is approaching a TRILLION dollars. TRILLION. There are 12 zeroes in a TRILLION. (I think TRILLION should always be spelt with capital letters to emphasize the size of the number). A TRILLION seconds is about 32,000 years! (Do the math).

SOME GOOD STIMULUS PROJECTS:

Fixing Up the National Mall: GO FOR IT. This will create some temporary construction jobs and will give some work to some DC area landscaping companies that will be happy for the work during the housing lull.

Replacing aging Federal Fleet automobiles: GO FOR IT. Stipulate that passenger vehicles need to be fuel efficient (maybe 30+ mpg highway) and that all vehicles must be made in the USA. I don't see why federal employees can't drive things like Chevy Cobalts.

Mass-Transit Projects: GET TO IT! I heard from a local transit expert that there is a 4 year wait to get a large coach bus (the kind I ride daily. It is very often over crowded). Why aren't GM, Chrysler and Ford making these? Or at least making parts that will help speed production for the companies that make the full busses? How about more subways and commuter rail lines? Every metropolitan area seems to have wish-list plans that just need the injection of capital to get the work rolling. Let's go.

Rebuild the Power Grid: GO FOR IT! This is necessary. The more I read about the problems with our current power situation, the more I think this needs to be done. The amount of power necessary to sustain the grid infrastructure is just too much. There are solid plans to fix it. Let's make it happen. Let's build some more power plants too. I bet newer coal power plants are more efficient than the older ones (haven't really researched this). The coal is still "dirty" but using a dirty fuel more efficiently will help with pollution and greenhouse gasses.

Middle class Tax Cuts: YES! If you give tax cuts to the wealthier types right now, they'll just invest it in stocks while they can buy as low as possible. (If I had the money right now, I would soooo buy some stocks for cheap and sit on them). If you give a tax cut to Joe and Jane Q Taxpayer, they just might be able to turn the den into another bedroom and have another baby. Maybe they'll re-finish their basement to have a game room or play room for the kids. They'll go to a Hardware/Home Improvement Store and buy the things they need. They may hire an electrician to do some re-wiring and such. This will help create jobs too.

LONGER TERM ECONOMICALLY SOUND PROJECTS (but too long term for an immediate stimulus package):

Researching Green Transportation: This will help make the US a leader again. A lot of successful private innovations start out as publicly funded research projects. This happens time and again with aerospace, military and pharmaceutical research. Why would green transport be any different.

Solar Power: Yeah. make it more efficient.

Health Care Reform: Our nation's companies are being brought down by healthcare costs. We need to reign in the craziness. Take GM for example. GM's current employees have a lower compensation (wages + benefits) than Toyota's US employees. GM has so much money tied up in legacy costs that they just can't get out from under them.

Education: Having a better trained workforce will help companies fill specialized jobs.

I'm sure there are more, but I'm just getting too tired to go on.

Tags: economy, ramblings, rant
Current Location: home
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: none