In his speech at Laborfest in Milwaukee over the weekend, President Barack Obama began the push for a new policy that would improve the nation's infrastructure as a way to put people back to work and get the economy moving again. While critics will say the plan will merely create short-term work and not long-term employment, it is the best way to create jobs over the next couple of years.
During his presidency, Obama has put an emphasis on infrastructure projects as a method for job creation to stimulate the economy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is a clear example of this policy, where the president decided to invest in various projects, including infrastructure, as a way to lower unemployment.
Plans like the ARRA and these infrastructure projects accomplish the fundamental goal of putting people back to work, even if that work is only guaranteed for a short time. Ideally, people who were unemployed can then spend money and stimulate the economy, hopefully creating more permanent jobs.
According to recovery.gov, the Obama administration's website that tracks and reports where money from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act goes, the legislation created 16,352 jobs in Wisconsin alone between April 1 and June 30, 2010. At this point, it is impossible to say if this will result in 16,352 permanent jobs that last beyond the ARRA's projects, but for now it is the right policy.
We also cannot be sure if this infrastructure investment will result in temporary work or long-term employment for all of its projects, but some of the projects should.
If a high-speed rail between Madison and Milwaukee becomes a reality, there is the possibility for both short-term work and permanent jobs. In the next few years, Wisconsinites would find jobs constructing the railroad and, once it is completed, some could find permanent employment working on those lines. Granted far fewer people would earn a permanent career than would work to build the railroad, but there would be both short- and long-term employment from such a project.
Also, regardless of their impact on the economy, these infrastructure improvements are necessary. Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz remarked that road construction in Madison this summer has not necessarily been a matter of going into debt, but instead investing in the city's future by creating better streets.
We will need to improve America's infrastructure sometime, and the possibility of creating jobs and stimulating the economy only sweetens the deal. Even today we enjoy the benefits of public works projects from the New Deal, a program that put Americans back to work in the last great financial crisis. Spending opponents like Mark Neumann, Scott Walker and Ron Johnson would do well to remember that. It stands to reason that fixing America's infrastructure now would lead to benefits future generations can enjoy as well.
These measures are a good first step, but the obvious question and biggest point of contention is what comes next. In the short term, infrastructure projects will put people back to work and hopefully provide a jolt to the economy through consumer spending. The question is whether or not this will result in long-term recovery that will employ Americans for decades, not just for a few months.
We cannot say what the solution to America's economic woes is, but putting people to work on infrastructure projects is the best policy for now.
