Build an economy, not buy one

Let’s use the $150 billion currently proposed for rebates and corporate welfare to instead fund an 18-month infrastructure and government-efficiency initiative. That is what Bob MacNeal says in today’s StarTribune. I couldn’t agree more. The analogies to the WPA, Roosevelt, and the depression are quite apropos. We have an economy largely destroyed by rampant unregulated capitalism. (That is what is at the heart of the subprime mess and the various other big shocks we have had to the economy starting with Enron.)

The way to get us out of this is not some little Easter gift card of borrowed money so we can go buy a load of Chinese products. Also since, as happened last time there was a tax rebate like this, most of it went to pay off debt, it isn’t likely to really do that much. The real road to salvation lies in putting people to work. Being at work and seeing people at work is what gives confidence in the economy. But while we put people to work, we should also be building the foundation of a good economy, infrastructure. Lets build roads and bridges, but even more importantly, lets build rail and mass transit. We need to start laying the foundation for an economy that is less dependent on oil or we are going to see a endless series of economic problems and shocks every time oil prices jump, or worse continual oil wars.

But we need more than a new WPA.

The slow return to laissez-faire economic policy started by Reagen has been accelerated by what I would call the neo-laissez-faire policies of Bush. (The government should get involved in the market but only to assist corporations) It is time to aggressively enforce laws and regulations, reinvigorate the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts, the Robinson-Patman Act, the unions and get the government to work for real people not just “juristic” persons.