As we dust ourselves off from the shellacking that most of us took in 2010 and look forward (with hope?) to 2011 and beyond, it is obvious to me that the U.S. is at a significant crossroads. While many economists predict modest growth of 3% this year, they also predict that unemployment will hover around 10%. What can we do to turn this around? Make a strategic and substantial commitment to investment in public infrastructure.
I’m not talking about paving roads and repairing bridges (which must still be done). I’m talking about a strategic look at our electrical transmission system and how we can develop a smart grid system. We also need to take a strategic look at both water and wastewater infrastructure. Clean drinking water will likely be the most precious natural resource around the world in the decades to come. It’s time to shore up our crumbling infrastructure and optimize both water and wastewater treatment to eliminate wasting this precious resource.
The U.S. once led the world in the quality of our infrastructure, but we’re rapidly taking a back seat to other countries that are much more progressive and proactive in their approach to their own energy and water future. A strategic commitment to improvement must become a national priority and a rallying cry for Americans, much like the race to the moon was in the 1960s.
With our country’s deficit spiraling out of control and deficit hawks calling for substantial budget cuts to stem the tide, how can we do all this? We do it by acting strategically, spending our resources wisely and leveraging private sector investment. Such an initiative creates multitudes of new good paying jobs, which in turn reduces unemployment and increases tax revenues to help reduce the deficit. And when we’re done, we’ve taken steps that our children and grandchildren will benefit from.
