Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Economy

New Mexico, more than most, will feel the effect of less defense spending.  But that doesn't mean those jobs have to disappear.  They just need to turn into something else.

Maybe the Governor and Mayors should get to work on this.

The U.S. economy has contracted in the last quarter.  One of the reasons given is that the defense budget is shrinking.  Hooray.  Up to a point.  I think it is great we are spending less money on our warrior ways.  Those dollars in the end don't really produce anything.  The weapons systems are designed to destroy assets.  Not build them.

But, that money we have been spending should mostly be redirected into research and development of renewable energy.  We know right now that putting up solar panels on every roof top is a winner, so lets redirect some of that money into such a coal killing project.  It is a twofer.....it helps with climate change issues and it builds infrastructure.

The rest of those defense dollars that we will be saving ought to be jammed into the nation's efforts at improving our roads, highways, bridges, rail and other transportation systems.  This would create lots of jobs while improving our chances of staying off of collapsing bridges.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That makes a lot of sense. A lot of those defense dollars just go into paying peoples' gas and electric bills anyway.

All of those things you mention would improve the efficiency of our economy, too. We used to think in those terms, didn't we? Isn't that why we have an interstate highway system and the reason we built those bridges in the first place?

The thinking that the market will take care of all that has infected government.

Anonymous said...

This is off of Sandia Labs web site. "Sandia National Laboratories has maintained research programs in solar, wind, and geothermal energy science and technologies since the 1970s. In recent decades, we have added research programs in biofuels and biomass to our renewable-energy portfolio. Use the menu to the right to explore our research programs and learn about our recent progress."