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Highways and Bridges
February 7, 2009
Posted by: Carol
I am ready to scream. Since when did building new highways and bridges become the only thing "real," the only thing "worthy," the only thing "smart," the only thing that is given a pass as "not pork"? Llistening to some members of Congress and the media, you would think that the only people out of work are road builders and the only thing that stimulates the economy is buying more asphalt and steel. Haven't they heard of the highway to nowhere? Haven't they heard of highway-induced sprawl that has killed as many neighborhods as it created?
Heaven help us if we invest in transit. Right. Now there's a stupid move. It only decreases our dependence on foreign oil, reduces congestion, saves families the cost of another car, and builds something we clearly need for the future. See? Stupid.
And what about the arts? Oh no, we wouldn't want to invest there. Museums, theatres and art centers got lumped in with a group of other forbidden projects, including casinos, community centers, zoos and swimming pools, in an attempt -- what? -- to make sure we didn't waste money on those wasteful "amenities."
The latest stimulus deal even cut the weatherization of federal buildings. Yeah, let's keep emitting that carbon and paying high utility bills for the pleasure of doing so.
How much sense does this make? I'm not fussing about the stimulus or the amount of it. I trust Paul Krugman to know a whole lot more than I do about this, so bring it on. But we have to change the public dialogue on what kind of spending makes sense because it is Alice through the looking glass at the moment, when up means down and down means up.
We'll get more of what we got because that what is most familiar. It is, as one colleague put it, a failure of imagination writ large. Those of us who support alternatives had better learn to sharpen our message.
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