UCB economist Robert B. Reich on the state of the American economy: "The top 1 percent now takes home about 20 percent of total national income. As recently as 1980, it took home 8 percent."
He calls for a massive investment in a public works/ job-creation program on the model of FDRs New Deal. In this vein, Google CEO Eric Schmidt "calls for a bold move into solar and wind power. It would cost $2.7 trillion through 2030. However, Schmidt says it would generate $2.1 trillion in energy savings. It would also create hundreds of thousands of jobs. And help fight global warming."
He points outs out that many of these jobs would be produced in rural areas where unemployment is highest, and would be in sectors like construction and engineering that are hard hit by the current situation. I personally wouldn't mind a high-speed rail link connecting Medocino County with the Bay Area. Why we don't already have a high-speed rail line running from San Diego to Seattle is beyond me.
Now is as good a time as any to re-engineer our energy systems and redistribute wealth and income in America (and globaly), but the brilliant Mike Davis points to three key reasons why the FDR's New Deal model is not relevant to the current situation: this is not your grand pappy's industrial capitalism - financial captialism is a whole new, and even more predatory (and volitile) beast. More on Davis' analysis to follow.
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