Monday, 3 December 2007
Infrastructure: A Solution We Can All Agree On
« Public Transit Makes Me Say : Bah Humbug! | Main | Metro Fare Increase: A Fair Assessment »Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to attend a series of lectures and conferences sponsored by Bernard Schwartz, a prominent philanthropist and scholar, which address the importance of infrastructure to the economy. At today’s session, hosted by the New America Foundation, I finally had the chance to listen to Mr. Schwartz speak himself.
The previous installments of this series have centered on the notion that the nation’s ability to compete in the global marketplace is threatened by decaying infrastructure. Today, Mr. Schwartz furthered his argument by asserting that infrastructure can in fact help speed up economic recovery and fuel growth. Numerous prominent economists on the panel exploring this idea offered their take on the current and future state of the world economy. Crises in the housing markets caused by sub-prime mortgage practices have led to a larger credit crisis, which in turn has affected the global credit and currency markets. In short: experts expect a downturn in the global economy for the next two to three years.
Responding to that, Mr. Schwartz hopes to share an optimistic message: that there are things governments can do to spur growth, create jobs, and spark innovation; he believes infrastructure is a prime part of that. Harkening back to the civil works projects of the New Deal, Mr. Schwartz thinks a new commitment to rebuilding infrastructure can bring disparate groups and philosophies together like nothing else. In his remarks he commented that people often ask him, why focus so intently on infrastructure when there are other worthy causes? His response is that there are so many problems in our society today, but few clear cut ways to solve them. Unlike issues such as education or health care, improved infrastructure is an idea that has a great deal of consensus around it. Mr. Schwartz’s philosophy: learn to work together by solving a problem we can fix, then tackle the stuff we argue about.
With a sensible message like that, I can’t help thinking that solving the nation’s infrastructure crisis is within our reach. When you can think outside the box like Bernard Schwartz and relate it on a macro-level, the need becomes even clearer and more pressing. Let’s hope that he keeps spreading the word, and in the meantime, work to let policy makers know America needs better infrastructure!
Let your lawmaker’s know here.
For more information on today’s program visit the New America Foundation Website the program will also air on C-SPAN over the next few days.