Dear President-Elect Obama (roads)
Dear President-Elect Obama:
I hope this letter finds you in good health and most importantly warm. Not sure if you are still spending most (or some) of your time in the Windy City or have settled in warmer weather in anticipation to your change of address in January 2009, but here in Minneapolis, just four hundred miles west of Chicago, winter has arrived a few weeks early.
I admit I never watched any of your presidential campaign speeches, paid TV programs, radio or internet propaganda. I did watch a few debates and read a few (okay more than a few) articles on the web. Don’t be upset with me, I did the same for your competition which, earlier this year held their party convention in St. Paul (about twenty minutes from my home).
The purpose of this letter is to comment and suggest what Naive Americans might consider a better approach to solve the current economic crisis in the Unites States. A few weeks ago I watched an interview of you on 60 Minutes. You said you read about past presidents in an attempt complement the courteous-yet-limited advice provided by the living presidents. This Naive American applauds your intentions and was happy to hear that they chose not to share their thoughts with you. Keep in mind that all of them were part of the problem that has dragged our country to the state it is in today. I wish to remind you that your platform was based on CHANGE. Trust me, we do not want more of the SAME.
This Naive American is not a political or history buff. But as my parent would say, you need a rounded education. I also found out that talking about computer science and electrical engineering does not get too many people excited; politics does since everyone has an opinion seldom based on logic and facts. Apparently you have read about past presidents. Given the state of the economy you mentioned President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). He as you will in a few weeks had to deal with tough economic times. I have also read a couple books about the life of FDR. I am not too interested in the character or for that matter the actual individual. What awakens my interest is what people do and how they accomplish it.
FDR was in office during the Great Depression. One of the mechanisms used by FDR to provide Naive Americans with jobs was road construction. It was in recent news that you are planning on spent billions of US Dollars in upgrading our transportation infrastructure. It is a fact that many of our highways and bridges are in need of maintenance. I live in the Twin Cities and a couple years ago a bridge on Interstate 35W over the Mississippi river collapsed killing and injuring several children, men and women. America needs to take care of this issue but we need to put it in perspective.
At the time of FDR new roads were constructed with a double purpose. First construction provided relative low paying jobs for blue-collar workers. The point is that having a job is much better than not having one. Back then building a mile of highway required more than three (3) times the amount of manual labor it requires today. This implies that the number of Naive American that would benefit from such projects will be few. I can see the hand of lobbyist for construction companies pushing for a “proven solution” (for their pockets). Roads encourage people to drive. I am not going to suggest that US has all the roads we will ever need, but at this point in time it appears to be enough highways which promote consumption of enormous amounts of foreign oil which in turn exacerbates the current economic problem. Besides, people are driving less. In conclusion, road construction / repairs benefit few and should not be considered a priority. Another thing to consider is how is this highway / road project going to be funded and what is most important what is it going to produce sustainable revenues? Is the plan going to be to increase taxes to pay for roads or are most highways going to be toll roads? Chicago has many toll roads and the roads and highways are in no better shape than other parts of the country. Not only that but most of the moneys collected in tolls are funneled for other uses (same hold true in the state of New York). The Naive American is a little confused because highway tolls in the Chicago area (a city in your home State president elect Obama) appears to be just another tax.
Not sure about the qualifications or interests of your diverse advisors. It appears that you are doing what is useless but “politically correct” surrounding yourself with Democrats and Republicans to justify failure. Perhaps you have in mind four (4) terms in office and FDR? Such approach is not CHANGE it just represents more of the SAME.
As I mentioned in this correspondence, I am a computer scientist. In my line of work we use two (2) terms very often: fixes and solutions. A fix is something you do quickly to computer software to get the customer up and running. In most cases a fix would address on a temporary base the issue at hand but may bring side effects, which might not affect the particular customer at the time. The solution (some people believes there are many solutions to a problem, but in actuality only one is best), which typically takes a little longer to develop and test but permanently, solves the problem. Road construction should be considered as an attempt for a fix not a solution.
Allow this Naive American to propose an actual solution. The Federal Government should provide funds (if you wish to consider them a form of bailout) to all small, medium and large companies in need that develop and manufacture products and goods in the USA employing legal US residents and citizens. By doing so jobs existing jobs would be maintained and new ones would be created. Aid should be transparent in such a manner that it cannot be used to pay high salaries of executives, which the only thing they do is to contribute, to the high costs of goods. Companies should pass a simple evaluation in order to qualify them for help. The names and amounts should be posted on the WWW for all Naive Americans to see were the moneys are going. All companies receiving aid should pay back the funds they receive in different periods of time. Each period should be associated with a very small but increasing simple interest rate.
The Naive American does not wish to see the US government bail out companies that were doomed long before this recession started. Keep in mind that the US is not able to afford huge government and wars. By printing more Dollars we are just increasing the issues not only in the US but also in the world. Sooner or later we will not be the leaders we are so accustomed to and the US Dollars might be replaced for a more stable currency accepted around the world.
Yours truly;
The Naive American
