What do you mean start to fall apart.lol
Here is one very very small example if somebody runs off the road and damages a steel T post it takes 2 state dump trucks to drive very slow out there after somebody (a superviser) drives out and verifies a new 5 dollar post is needed now there is usually 2 men in each truck 1 to 2 hours to drive the post in the ground and hook up the clips then drive very slow back to the yard. sometimes this can take a full day.

The road job I worked on last summer had 9 inspectors on one job all driving a different pickup. The same job was done by one man for years.

Another road job last year was in a national park they actually had people digging up weeds on the side of the road taking coordinates so when we finished the job they could put them back in their natural elements.

This is just my observations in one industry but you can see why they can't print money fast enough.

 

As long as the american dollar is still worth something, things can still be salvaged because buying and selling can still happen on a wide scale. But printing more money could undermind the last pillar holding your country up. If the economic stimulus works, then things could be on the mend, but if not.....what is there left that any government can do?

I'm a little smug in western canada because ontario (biggest province) is neck deep in dept thanks to a generous social system and a government that would blame the capital for their own overspending and other liberal fiscal policy. Meanwhile Alberta has paid off its debt and cut taxes. BC is still pressing on thanks to a good mix of fiscal prudence, economic diversity, and private services to supplement public services (unpopular, but at least we can pay our bills).

Western canada has finally started to slow down a little, but we are still in way better shape than the rest of the country.

 

In our case economic stimulis that is being talked about is things like more studys to improve alternative energy. wind power is the main one mentioned the gov already gives grants for these things plus private investors also as they will be the ones to implement them. (no return for the govt).
The biggest thing they are talking about is infastructure this is something that is needed very bad in our country as a whole roads bridges pipelines there is no reason for anybody in the lower 48 not to have natural gas instead of diesel heat.
Now we have been and continue to pay every day for the road and bridge building and maintenance but the money is poorly spent or used in other areas.
So the big economic stimulis plan the money that isn't there has to come from somewhere.

 

I'm all for investing in renewable clean energy, but it shouldn not come at the expense of the economic stability of the country. I hate to say it, but it might be time to take a step back for a little while with wind power and electric cars (and the rest).

The ideas are sound, but they do not need to be subsitized at the expense of the tax payers. Let them fight for their place in the free market like anything else. Just because they are clean and renewable, doesn't mean we should throw money at them.

I'm still putting together my EV for this summer though

 

Here's one for you David.
A few years ago I went to work for a very short time for the county.
One whole day I leaned against a tree. The next day I was told to go back to the same location so I asked what I was supposed to do and told the same thing I did the day before. So I told the road superintendent that I did not do one thing the day before.
I was told real quick to do it again. I told him if he didn't have anything for me to do I would go home he said no and I better get used to not doing anything that was how it is.

 

I have heard several people say the infrastructure plan will take to long.
Yep probably will, if you put people to work, pay them a decent wage it will take a lot longer for the money to wind up in some CEO's pocket.

I have been in the building buiseness for a long time.
You want a good building, it has to have a good foundation to stand for very long.
To many times I heard I don't want to spend 5000 on a foundation, I want a 5000 dollar front door.
My respose was, Do you want the front door to open and close next year?

Intrastructure is the foundation the country stands on.
To bad much of the money that should have been spent on infrastructure went somewhere else.

If all of the bail out money would have been spent on infrastructure, it might have taken a little longer, but it would have fixed the problem from the bottom up.

Then again, if the money would have been going to infrastructure like it should have been for years, none of the bail outs would have been needed in the first place.

Just some hillbilly views on what the problems are.
I had more to say about where they came from in my opinion, but they were a little to much to post here.

We are pushing the political thing a bit hard as it is now for the forums.

 

Public maintenance is notorious for that. I heard a story of a guy that took a summer job for the city for greenworks (mowing and the likes) while he was on summer break from collage. His supervisor explained to him the correct proccedure on how to put down lawn fertilizer.

Basically you drive the vehicle halfway on the side walk to use enough of the stuff without burning the grass. If they actually used less fertilizer, then the city might cut back their budget for next year, so they had to use as much as possible. The student looked him square in the face and asked: "do you want me to just dump some in the river?" the supervisor thought about it and figured it was best not to do that (but he did consider it!!!).

Storm drains are right next to the sidewalks so it would end up there anyway, but I guess dumping it directly in the local watershed would have been waaaaay to obvious. This could be one example where a private contractor would have been more responsible, becuase the more efficiently they operate, the more money they make. Not the same with public works.

 

As for your comments about wind power, just google "Wind farm opposition" and look at the 400,000 documents that pop up in .23 seconds.

 

Actually, I agree that now is the time to invest in infrastructure. Labor costs would be more reasonable now that the economy is down, so the nation would get the most out of the initial investment by building when the economy is low. The workers on the other hand at least have a job where they may not have otherwise. Probably won't get paid as much if they were a layed off UAW worker, but it should still be enough to put bread on the table.

You have to work on the highways sooner or later, might as well start sooner, than later....

 

Sure but if you type in wind farm support, you get 4.7 million hits. I still don't understand why there is so much opposition though.

Actually using in quotes in the search query cuts the search results down significantly though.

 

Yea these subjects are way to easy to get carried away on. For me that is.

 

The most common opposition to wind farms seems to be the turbine noise and the aesthetics of a wind farm. Even if they are miles away from the nearest house or subdivision. The greenies want clean energy, but they don't want to be personally inconvenienced by it.

I feel that nuclear energy is the most viable source. If it is properly managed, nuclear power is safe and the most efficient source of clean energy available.
Chernobyl is always sited whenever this is brought up. But the fact is that the Chernobyl plant was built with antiquated Soviet technology and was improperly maintained and monitored. The world and US technology has come a long way towards creating nuclear energy.

Another great source is hydroelectric power. This is a pretty common supplier for the western US. However, many of our dams are being threatened by removal because of indian water rights and salmon spawning. Its not the first time in the northwest that animal rights come before ours.
Jason

 

Didn't Chuck Norris back Huckabee.

 

I think he was supporting Huckabee until he fell out of the race early. Then he was backing Ron Paul's grass roots campaign. It seemed it was more of a message for not supporting McCain, Obama, or Clinton.

Jason

 

David, Oil will go up soon. My Canadian shares of Provident Energy Trust (PVX) have really been hammered. I know they are a great company and will be back in the chips soon. OPEC has cut production and This Gulf oil is expensive to find and recover. Those operations will soon shut down if oil is under 80.00 per barrell. The politicians who want to raise taxes on fuel better hurry. Their window of opportunity will close soon. Gasoline here in Cocoa, Fl. has gone from 1.59 to 1.75 in the last 3 days. I bought some hi-test for my BMW motorcycle today for 2.05. The market for gasoline will be volitile, but the trend will be up. Lets enjoy it while we can.