Markham Lee_

The Stimulus Package: A Mixed Bag with Limited Potential Impact

The investments should be designed to deliver long-term ROI, not short-term bumps in consumer spending whilst we wait for "something" to happen to fix the economy.

If transportation can be that investment, than let's do it - if not, let's do something else

Our thinking needs to go back to the pre WII and post WWII periods, where investments in FHA, VA Loans, the G.I. Bill, Rural Electrification, the Interstate Highway system, etc, delivered real returns to the country for decades.

We have a choice, we can go for a short-term bump or build something that can deliver dividends to our grandchildren.

In many families in the U.S., those that went to college on the G.I. Bill and bought the family home with a VA loan, were the first generation of middle class people in that family. In effect many middle class Gen X'ers are upper-middle class today due to those first steps taken by their grandparents, we need to implement similar programs today if we're going to spend money to stimulate the economy.


-M