Friday, May 23, 2008

And one I forgot...

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Clinton, offers a "cure" for our "chronic recession," namely, that we should finance a massive rebuilding of our infrastructure. First, I am gratified that someone recognizes that our financial problems are long-term and structural, not just a matter of some technical formula that blurs reality.

Second, I agree that we need to rebuild our infrastructure; we have let that slide for far too long, adding to the debt that we expect future generations to pay. However, I think he minimizes the political problems here; I guess Professor Reich has never lived in Chicago. If he had, he would know that the problem isn't that government can't spend money wisely, it's that they tend to give too much of it to the wrong people. In my city, infrastructure contracts are the surest and easiest way to divert public funds into well-connected hands, which creates a certain, oh, mistrust on the part of those who ultimately pay.

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