I think the emphasis Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is putting on the Green New Deal is a stroke of genius. Not that the incoming progressives should let up on Health Care, or getting money out of politics, but a Green New Deal will solve so many problems at once.
If you give everybody who wants a job a job, it will pay for itself in three ways. First, it will end unemployment so the government won’t have to issue any more unemployment checks. It will pump a lot of money into the economy at the lower end, so every dollar paid out is going to be used a few times, and do a lot of good, before it eventually winds up in the greedy hands of the rich, as it always does. Third, there is the work which will get done.
It will end homelessness in two ways. First, if everybody has a full time job with decent pay, they will be able to afford rent, at least. Second, some of those people will be employed building and refurbishing homes.
It will help the environment in a lot of ways. First, the repairs to the infrastructure will keep traffic, water, energy and everything running smoothly. Secondly, some of that work will be the manufacture and installation of windmills and solar panels, which will help convert the U.S. energy grid to a clean thing, and that will make a huge difference. A lot of the workers may be put to work just planting trees, which would be great, and some to recycling garbage, which could be a whole new industry if it becomes universal.
It could help the educational system in a couple of ways. Schools, of course, are a part of the infrastructure and some are in need of repair, but also guaranteeing everybody a job, hopefully, will mean adding a few teachers (might as well) which will reduce classroom sizes, which means children get more individual attention.
It will reduce crime in a couple of ways. For one, if everybody’s got a job, fewer people have the time to be committing crimes, or even the sharpest of economic drives. Secondly, as I said above with education. If kids have teachers that are paying attention to them, fewer will grow up to be criminals, and we might get more of a heads up on which ones will.
So, it will be good for the economy, and the environment. It will end homelessness, reduce road accidents, improve education, reduce crime, beautify the country, and probably pay for itself, in the long term.
It’s just brilliant, all around.
