The more I look at the economic stimulus deal put together by the Bush Administration and Congress, the more it looks like an grand opportunity… missed. Yes, many Americans will be getting a check in May or June, for a few hundred dollars. How long, however, will that few hundred dollars last? It certainly won’t buy much gasoline or food these days.
That money is coming from our creditors overseas, and when we have to repay the money, with interest, back overseas it will go.
Consider what could have been if the government had taken the same amount of money and invested it in the development and deployment of alternative, sustainable sources of energy such as wind, solar and geothermal, and more efficient technology in engines, appliances and the transmission of electricity. The investment would have provided good jobs in this time of rising unemployment. Operating costs for all businesses and all households would have been decreased, with the cost of energy lowered for a long time to come. Furthermore, the tremendous negative economic impact of accelerating climate change would have been dramatically blunted.
Instead, George W. Bush and the Democrats in Congress have come along with a children’s-sized band aid to put on America’s massive economic flesh wound. The stimulus package encourages Americans to continue unhealthy consumption habits. It seems ridiculous when you think about it, but a repetition of past mistakes is actually what they’re hoping for! The Bush-Congress plan depends upon Americans continuing their habit of spending in ways that are contrary to their economic interests.
The problem with the economic stimulus package agreed to by George W. Bush and Nancy Pelosi this week is that it just throws money at the problem. The government will mail you a check, and will pump huge amounts of money into the economy with a dive in interest rates controlled by the Federal Reserve. Yet, a healthy economy is not founded upon money. A healthy economy is founded upon the development of sources of real value. Throwing money at the economy won’t reform the economy to make it more healthy. Throwing money at the economy just stimulates it, like a dose of methamphetamine stimulates an addict. It won’t be long until we feel the desperate urge for another dose.
This desperate chase after stimulus, to the detriment of sound investment in sustainable economic development is not just bad for the economy. It’s bad for the environment as well. Encouraging people to buy more stuff gives a temporary boost to manufacturing and transportation, but it also gives a boost to wasteful exploitation of resources, and in the long term, that’s not good for the economy or for our ecology. It destroys the value of our money as it destroys the natural foundation of our economy.
It’s deeply disappointing to me that none of the Democratic presidential candidates have supported the idea of responding to the current economic crisis through healthy economic stimulus based upon government investment in green energy. They’ve been too busy arguing with each other to propose meaningful economic and environmental revitalization. Instead, they support the Bush-Pelosi plan, and only support investment in sustainable energy infrastructure as some kind of pie in the sky project to be started years from now, not in response to the current economic troubles.
Action you can take: The United States Senate has not yet agreed to the unsustainable Bush-Pelosi plan. Call your United States senators and tell them that you want them to support an economic development package that provides a surge in government investment in sustainable energy infrastructure instead.
The phone number of the congressional switchboard is (202) 224-3121.
