What sort of infrastructure would you support being in the stimulus package?

[AngryAmish]

I clicked on the "Feminist Stimulus" thread expecting to roll my eyes a bit but it really makes a lot of sense.

This stimulus is weighted toward building infrastructure. I do think roads and bridges are important. But let me list other items that have been discussed:

1. Research (of most any kind). Color me skeptical. It is not necessarily that government funded research is useless. But outside real basic science (Hubble, particle accelerators) the government tends not to make the best decisions on what to research. It usually ends up in the hands of people with the best lobbyists.

2. High speed rail. Again, color me skeptical. I think in certain areas it may work but dedicated rights-of-way need to be built. It will not work in the midwest or west. Unless one stays in the city center one has to rent another car. East coast maybe, but then you will have the rest of the country bitching for it.

3. Roads and bridges. Seem ok with me. CO2 problems.

4. Education. Egh. Too many people go to college as it is. Also college is too expensive. Starve the beast, let prices fall.

5. ideas???

What do you want in the program?

What do you want excluded?

5.

[jpak]

1. High speed rail, smart electrical grids and NSF/NIH funded research

NSF funded research is highly competitive, peer reviewed and does NOT "end up in the hands of people with the best lobbyists".

Under Bush, however, NSF funding for oceanography and polar research has all but dried up - possibly due to ideological opposition to anything related to global climate change.

Kick the fucking GOP ideologies out of the science funding loops and increase basic science budgets.

This would increase support for research scientists, grad students and post-docs...

[Frustratedlady]

2. Wind Farms, Electrical Grids, Bridges and Roads, Schools

I'm not in favor of more housing. If we have so many repros available, why build more?

High Speed Rail service would help in the metropolitan areas...cut down on fuel usage.

More border protection, but not in the line of fences. Are they still building that thing?

We'll need more law enforcement, as the robberies are rising by the hour. Put people to work cleaning up the United States. Tear down dilapidated buildings and clean up the area for future development. Clean up the rivers and riverbanks.

There is so much to do, since so much has been ignored for so long.