Of course, never leave a good crisis to take advantage of pushing your own agenda forward. When everybody's back is turned towads Japan and to our own nuke plants which are all running great, that is the time to begin pushing things through.
$10BB may not seem like that much, but I think it was the way in which the proposal was presented that raised my eyebrows a bit.
First, everything I reference in the blog is in the article here.
Kerry first tries to pull at the frugal in each of us by claiming that nice roads, rails, and infrastructure isn't a luxury, but rather the lifeblood of the economy. (I paraphrased so I wouldn't have to bother with all the quotes. Check it out if you think I'm lying.) Not a luxury? Of course nice roads and rails are a luxury! These are not fundamental characteristics of the human condition in nature like air and water and trees and rocks and animals. This is a man-made tool that has only gotten better over time, especially when private companies are allowed to develop it. There is no entitlement to these roads that anyone living or breathing has or deserves or ever will. They exist only because of the place we are right now that capital accumulation and private property have taken us, in spite of governmental regulations, restrictions, and taxation. Road and such are not built because of government, but in spite of government.
So please spare us you tugging on our heart strings and small brains, trying to convince us that with out you, Mr. Kerry, looking out for all of us naive public. Without you we would apparently be driving our cars to work each morning through the nearest field.
And if we take Kerry's public/private melding of funds together to complete the project, wouldn't there be something to say about government efficiency at that point? If they were so efficient at everything, why would the government need the private sector to participate in the funding? After all, isn't it the evils of the market economy that we are trying to save the hapless public from in the first place?
On the other side of the coin, isn't all the money used whether public and private, really private to begin with? I mean, where doesn't the government get all that "public" money to work with? Hmmmm.
Now think about what would happen if a new bridge was put up with money from the public sector and money from private sector The cash flows began to ebb considerably from the project, it is not bringing in nearly as much as they projected it would. Now, the private investors are stuck with their capital in a very illiquid investment, one that now has little chance of ever showing them a return, and the entire project must be written off. Capital would be lost and it would be determined that the consumer didn't value the bridge being built more than the extra dollars in their pockets.
This is slightly different than from what the public sector will do with their portion of the funds. If the cash flow decreases, they don't really care because its not their money. They simply tax the people because "they want projects like this." If it goes completely under, the workers and managers do not care one bit, they will simply move on to the next job, funded again by the producers of the country. Or perhaps more money needs to be raised to finish the project. The public sector can just go raise more money from the tax payers, print more money, or issue more debt which will then inconvenience the population in many different ways.
The capitalists wouldn't have the same options, but neither would have they gotten themselves into the situation to begin with. Not without being forced to suffer a huge loss on their own and abandon the fruitless project. But in the public sector, these projects go on.
What a great example of government throwing more money on those activities which they seem to do an absolutely fabulous job on already!! Roadways, railways, airports, and seaports. Amazing examples of government efficiency and necessity in practice.
I guess you would have to be a fool not to support that stimulus bill.
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