On March 20, 2013, Travis Waldron writes on ThinkProgress.org:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus package signed into law by President Obama in 2009, improved America’s infrastructure, but the United States still needs a massive investment over the next seven years to keep its infrastructure up to date, according to a report cardfrom the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The report gave American infrastructure a D+ grade, tying the 2001 grade as the highest the United States has ever received and an improvement from the D it received in 2009. But the U.S. also need substantial investments between now and 2020 to keep its infrastructure in good repair (a B grade), according to the report. The U.S., the report estimates, will spend roughly $1.6 trillion between now and 2020 on infrastructure investment, far short of the $3.6 trillion it needs to reach a B grade.
Infrastructure upgrades and development are necessary to the quality of societal development and life. This is a necessary expenditure by government funded with taxpayer extraction and debt. What has been missing throughout America’s societal development is there has been no stipulation that the contracts issued to the private sector companies performing the upgrades and development demonstrate that they are broadly owned by their worker employees. Thus, the greatest immediate economic benefit resulting from taxpayer payment obligations accrues to the company owners and not the workers who are paid in wages and salaries.
A policy to ensure that future infrastructure added to the economy created new owners as well as jobs is necessary to put the nation on a path to prosperity, opportunity, and economic justice. As owners, the workers would benefit additionally from a second income and the capital gain value of the private sector companies they share in the ownership of. And this can be accomplished without reliance on “past” savings and without reduction in worker wages and salaries.
We need leadership to awaken all American citizens to force the politicians to follow the people and lift all legal barriers to universal capital ownership access by every man, woman, and child as a fundamental right of citizenship and the basis of personal liberty and empowerment. The goal should be to enable every man, woman, and child to become an owner of ever-advancing labor-displacing technologies, new and sustainable energy systems, new rentable space, new enterprises, new infrastructure assets, and productive land and natural resources as a growing and independent source of their future incomes.
Providing a way of legitimately getting productive capital ownership into the hands of the people who now don’t have it is the solution to America’s economic decline in wealth and income inequality, which will result in double-digit economic growth and cause EVERY American’s income to significantly grow, providing the means to support themselves and their families with an affluent lifestyle, and provide the necessary tax base to gradually pay off American debts. The Just Third Way Master Plan for America’s future is published at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797.
Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/03/20/1747791/stimulus-infrastructure/
