1. Build Nuclear Power Plants: Creates temporary construction demand, and longer-term demand for engineers and technicians that cannot be outsourced to India. Reduces dependence on foreign oil to help national security. No greenhouse gas emissions. Additional power actually needed in many states and potential for increase in demand as electric cars like the Volt start coming out in 2010.
2. Fix the energy grid in general. Consider building that transmission line from the midwest to east and west coasts that Boone Pickens wants.
3. Repair the highways. At least in California, these rather suck now.
4. Build a High speed rail network, complete with plush seating and fully-stocked bars in the coaches. Because every fiscal stimulus needs a rail-based boondoggle.
5. Build a space elevator. I don't care if we don't have the technology. I want a god-damn space elevator. We should be able to ride it up to a revolving zero-G restaurant, laughing at the Chinese Taikonauts in their little shuttle doing their little space walks we see on the way.
UPDATE:
California has a ballot measure for a high speed rail system linking up SF, Sacramento, LA and San Diego. The price tag is $40 billion. Pretty expensive, which is maybe why there are not many private companies doing HSR on their own.
Its interesting to note that Taiwan's HSR cost US$ 15 billion for about 200 miles of track. Taiwan had massive cost overruns and did not run nearly as many passengers as they initially claimed, so the critics of the CA plan are probably correct that it will actually cost more and not be as busy as envisioned, but despite that, the Taiwan system is supposedly profitable.
The logo for the California HSR looked sort of familiar...so either Obama will support the HSR network, or sue them for copyright violation.
Also, a small factoid from the wikipedia article on Taiwan's HSR says they are still employing about 30+ foreign drivers. Sacre Bleu! There must be some bar in Taipei that sells a lot of wine and crepes right before the trains run.
2. Fix the energy grid in general. Consider building that transmission line from the midwest to east and west coasts that Boone Pickens wants.
3. Repair the highways. At least in California, these rather suck now.
4. Build a High speed rail network, complete with plush seating and fully-stocked bars in the coaches. Because every fiscal stimulus needs a rail-based boondoggle.
5. Build a space elevator. I don't care if we don't have the technology. I want a god-damn space elevator. We should be able to ride it up to a revolving zero-G restaurant, laughing at the Chinese Taikonauts in their little shuttle doing their little space walks we see on the way.
UPDATE:
California has a ballot measure for a high speed rail system linking up SF, Sacramento, LA and San Diego. The price tag is $40 billion. Pretty expensive, which is maybe why there are not many private companies doing HSR on their own.
Its interesting to note that Taiwan's HSR cost US$ 15 billion for about 200 miles of track. Taiwan had massive cost overruns and did not run nearly as many passengers as they initially claimed, so the critics of the CA plan are probably correct that it will actually cost more and not be as busy as envisioned, but despite that, the Taiwan system is supposedly profitable.
The logo for the California HSR looked sort of familiar...so either Obama will support the HSR network, or sue them for copyright violation.
Also, a small factoid from the wikipedia article on Taiwan's HSR says they are still employing about 30+ foreign drivers. Sacre Bleu! There must be some bar in Taipei that sells a lot of wine and crepes right before the trains run.
5 comments:
4 & 5 are jokes. 1,2,3, not so much.
I agree with points 1 - 4, and Emphatically Agree with point 5.
Except that 1, 2, & 3 would not really do so much as fiscal stimulus (to fix the immediate mess). But they should be done anyway. HSR lines should be built in a few high population density areas- no need to try and connect New York and Los Angeles.
OMG! I agree with every word -almost- I don't care about california's highways. And Karl, why not connect them? As far as pork barrel is concerned...seems like a pretty good option, and it might be a project that the country could get behind with out needing to cause mass death and destruction. I can't claim to have thought this through a whole lot, but...?
Aj
A fiscal stimulus would not help fix the financial crisis per se, but would bump growth up a bit. That said, by the time even the environmental impact reports are filed, we would be out of the current mess anyhow, so these ideas really do require unleashing our inner state planners who can magically make red tape go away.
AJ, you don't connect them because you'd probably want to fly that distance - its still much faster than a high speed train. 3,000 miles / 200 miles/hours = 15 hours not including stops.
There's a section on HSR's competitive range in this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail#Optimal_distance
Please also note the synergy...you can use your nuke power plants to run your trains!
red A
Ahh i see, though i did see one of those alternative science shows the other day that said a mag-train tube could do 3000 mph. One hour coast to coast now that would be cool! Aj
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