Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Brain Dead at 55, Not Attuned to The Times

Listlessly approaching my 55th birthday, I remarked to myself, why not try my luck and respond with another online comment to a New York Times op-ed, and sure enough, Providence sent Bob Herbert's "Our Crumbling Foundation" to my feebleminded attention.

Acccording to Mr. Herbert: "The link between the need to rebuild the nation's crumbling infrastructure and the crucial need to find new resources of employment in this economic downturn should be obvious, a no-brainer."

Hmmm. I racked what is left of my gray matter and shot off the following rejoinder:
It is not just about creating jobs.

It is more important to nurture workplaces that proffer needed and desired products and services that assure future American economic leadership and provide the basis for sustainable employment.

Foolish me. I sent this epistle early, it was included on the first page of online comments, and I reaped my just rewards: Whereas comment no. 7 received some 250 reader recommendations, I received 15, and if I hadn't cheated by recommending myself, I might have ended up with the lowest total on the page.

Where did I go wrong? Had I only made referrence to those avaricous banks and nefarious Republicans! Alas, too late.

Suddenly a vision dawned on me, a bolt of lightning shooting across neglected neurons and synapses: Armies of obese MBAs, formerly employed by Lehman Brothers and General Motors, crisscrossing the U.S. with picks and shovels, singing "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go", repairing the nation's decrepit bridges and highways . . . and 20 years later, with America's bridges and highways impassable and a white-haired Mr. Herbert acknowledging that civil engineering is a skilled profession, teams of talented Chinese laborers undoing the damage and securing these vital transportation links for America's fleets of Hondas, Mazdas and Toyotas.

2 comments:

  1. That was a good argument, but the infrastructure is crumbling and I know quite a few contractors who have not seen a contract in months.
    And they are the "Hi ho" people.
    Training artists formerly known as traders to keep a roof over their heads is not a challenge that can't be met, same goes for the retraining of the inefficient and obsolete crowd of the car industry.
    However, investors will not see a nationwide rehaul of manufactoring as a necessity, but as a loss; big money makers are not exactly interested in long term development, they have proven it sufficiently with this crisis.
    My answer would be to have a program to rebuild the infrastructure (it is badly needed) and at the same time keep the governments shares in failing entities, such as GM, long enough to sustain its modernization and long term profitability.

    But we are broke, and with the excesses of the budget, Medicare will eat it all within the next 10 years; not because it isn't needed but because the Health industry is playing the short term game; I can't see any financing of anything anytime soon.
    Perhaps, I am a creature of the past, I do believe that government programs foreseeing the general interest for the next 50 years are vital, just like Geopolitics, you do need a strategy, not a band aid.

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  2. Dear M. Boffy,

    Thanks for your excellent, thoughtful comment. There are many people in pain, and as you point out, a strategy is needed, not a band aid. Is there a partial answer in rebuilding infrastructure? Maybe. But how long until this program comes on line, and do strategic goals and needs change in the interim?
    Jeffrey

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