We now have our two candidates for president, and each is searching for their bumper sticker slogan to capture the voters' imagination.
I would like to offer the following suggestion to President Obama. Use the slogan, "Build it now!" Go to places where investment in infrastructure is needed, and tell us how many jobs would be created if congress would just follow his plan and "Build it now!"
For all the talk of how to get the economy going, there is one simple answer... People need to be working, so that the tax base can increase. If the private sector is not creating jobs, then the public sector must help. In the depression it was seen as beneficial to have one man dig a hole and another fill it back up. This was because the two would then be drawing a paycheck which would flow to the grocers and renters in the neighborhoods across the country.
Right now, there is no need to have the government employ people for the sake of employing them. Bridges, roads, telecommunication lines, and water systems (to name just some) all need to be updated/repaired/replaced, so the government putting people back to work would not just to be digging and filling the same hole over and over. Something of real value can be gained, if we just "Build it now!"
There are many that would ask how we pay for it, and I understand the concern, however this is one of the moments when the country should be taking out new loans. Aside from the fact that interest rates are incredibly low, right now, which makes the money inexpensive to borrow, it is common sense. This is how sensible debt is created in individuals' lives, as well. We borrow money when we need a new car, we borrow money when our house needs repair, and we borrow money to educate ourselves so that we can make more money in the future.
Debt spending in this case would give us the benefit of not only improving our country for the long run, but we would be able to put hundreds of thousands back to work, which would put more money in the hands of the grocers, and renters, and shopkeepers that provide goods and services to the people now drawing paychecks, and all because our country decided to "Build it now!"
Three little words are all it takes to let people know who is trying to improve the country. President Obama, "Build it now!"
