sounds like the ccc with a little looting of the treasury on the side. the wpa with halliburton as manager.

dommer,

I see one rather large flaw with Stage 1. The gov't can pay to retool plants and hire all those folks to build new drilling equipment but he question would remain: who will buy all this equipment? I work in the oil patch and see daily there is no pressing need for more equipment. An occasional local shortage due to increased activity over he last couple of years. But the key problem now is the lack of skilled workers for the drilling contractors and service companies. The latest oil price drop and credit tightness has caused a major contraction in drilling activity. The industry solution is standard and been utilized for decades: cut back and lay off staff. The gov't the philosophy of "If we build it they will use it" is seriously flawed.

If they think throwing money at our problems they should throw it at alternatives IMO. I doubt they'll be effective at it but at least it has some positive possibilities.

I have a Kuwaiti friend who told me a story about his first job. He was brought to an office where they dragged in a new desk and chair to add to the dozens of others. A report of some sort would come in to the room and each person had to read then sign it. Soon it became obvious that none of the others read it so he asked about that and they said that the same reports are circulated over and over. In the months he was there they kept dragging in desks adding people until the room was packed then they expanded to another office.

He said that very soon this situation became so disheartening that he begged his family to send off to American university. He said he knows that if he goes back he will likely be promoted to the guy who brings in the report.

Obviously, there are many real positions in Kuwait but in much of the wealthy OPEC countries there is make work which is more detrimental to the human spirit than not working.

IMO over half the jobs in the developed world, perhaps 2/3s of jobs are makework. The FIRE industries, finance, insurance, realestate for example.

We need to get more creative in coming up with legitimate ways of occupying our time to deal with the massive unemployment that is starting to happen.

Give people back their dignity.

I could not agree more, Antidoomer, but the Obama plan is idiocy. The building needs to be in things that will:

1. give people work, and the more the merrier
2. reduce consumption of fossil fuels
3. increase renewable energy generation

To that end, pay/help pay for improvements in efficiency/micro power generation improvements in every household. A large number of people would have to be trained to do design, building and installation of these projects. The would not do all the work, but help private citizens/communities to do this. This would provide a huge number of jobs, would make transition to an renewable electric system faster and more affordable as well as saving fossil fuels, and build community connections.

Rather than build roads (some money repairing what we have is OK, I suppose, particularly in cities) we should be building electrified mass transit - both short and long-haul. Obviously this would employ large numbers of people, but also would reduce consumption of oil in the long term by a large amount.

A massive back-to-the-earth movement to promote sustainable agriculture would do wonders. Natural farming methods act as carbon sinks. Small farms/"victory gardens" would ensure the food supply for the entire population - as well as shutting down Monsanto and their ilk. Further, large amounts of land could be cultivated using natural methods and the food exported, helping with the US trade deficit.

Build out: The Grid vs. The Household - Towards a Community-based Solution to CC and PO

And all this would cost less, in the long run, than any form of BAU while at the same time creating communities, giving us a chance to avoid globally catastrophic climate change and moving in the direction of sustainable, steady state economics.

Cheers