Reinvesting in the Erie Canal?

Eliot Spitzer, former governor of NY, has posted a very smart piece on Slate challenging current plans for the economic stimulus package.  After noting that the lasting impact of the New Deal was the way in which it redefined the social contract, Spitzer wrote, "The off the shelf infrastructure projects that can be funded immediately and provide immediate demand-side stimulus are almost by definition not the transformative investments we really need.  Paving roads, repairing bridges that need refurbishing, and accelerating existing projects are all good and necessary, but not transformative.  These projects by and large are building or patching the same economy with the same flaws that got us where we are.  Our concern should be that as we look for the next great infrastructure project to transform our economy, we might rebuild the Erie Canal and find ourselves a century behind technologically.

"This moment presents the administration with what is likely to be its best -- and perhaps only -- opportunity to have essentially unlimited capital (both fiscal and political) to spend on a transformative economic agenda."

Spitzer humbly offers his own ideas about how to spend the money, ("These are not the only ideas, and they may not be the best," he writes.)  and they seem a whole lot more promising than what we've heard to date.  Let's hope Congress and the new administration are listening.

  

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