Shade Parade: Benefits of Spending on Infrastructure

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Benefits of Spending on Infrastructure - Why Wait?!?!

Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary & Obama economics chief, favors big public spending on infrastructure as a relief strategy for our economy.

Places like JFK Airport are falling apart. Construction unemployment is double digit. Interest rates are less than 3%!

As a country, we talk about educating our children, decreasing obesity, making our cities attractive to innovation and economy but meanwhile we hesitate to invest. But why wait?

Infrastructure pays for itself. It directly stimulates spending. It puts people to work while creating places Americans want to be.

'The strongest investment that can be made is in public infrastructure'. Shade Parade Nashville agrees! And, if government won't do it - cannot the people? People donate, here in Nashville, to large civic organization such as Cheekwood or The Frist Museum but what about a foundation to build sidewalks? This is part of what Shade Parade Nashville hopes to create.

Larry Summers ideas are not new ideas but they are just as meaningful today as they have been throughout history. The Works Progress Administration did similar spending on infrastructure as a way to employ people & improve the country.

At this time, there is a lot of focus entirely on debt reduction but, meanwhile, waiting to maintain infrastructure is going to make future upkeep actually more expensive. Anyone who owns a home understands this. If you wait to fix the leaking roof - it actually will cost you more due to additional damage that occurs over time.