What is our ethanol?
Yesterday, I heard my first ad of the Pa presidential campaign. It was an Obama radio spot, aimed at young people, imploring them over and over and over that they have to register Democratic to be able to vote in the primary. I suppose this means that it has begun... (I will write more at some point, but I am about 99% likely to vote for Obama.)
On that note, I am sure most of you have noticed the plethora of "guides to PA" that Newspapers have been publishing. (Ie, "this is what water ice is.")
The City Paper has put out something a little more useful, under the the title "The Pandering Guide." The basic idea is that, like the Iowa Caucuses forcing candidates to announce themselves "Ethanol Queens" and the like, Pennsylvania has just a few needs. As the CP notes, our needs don't generally involve propping up agribusiness, and instead focus on... poverty and infrastructure and all that cheery stuff:
So, Barack and Hillary, forget all that talk about the "right way" to order sandwiches, and behold the true path to Philadelphians' hearts: cold, hard cash, and some serious political promises. And hey, unlike corn ethanol, these panders have the benefit of being worthwhile.
So, they want solutions from the candidate. Maybe we should ask for one, too... What program is our ethanol?
It's a small thing.........and not just PA related
But it's something a President can do unilaterally. They can commit to issuing an executive order outlawing discrimination based upon gender identity and expression.
While this would only cover some federal employees and the District of Columbia, it would send a strong signal to employers and to those legislators who dropped transgender people from the pending employment non discrimination bill (ENDA) in October. Seeing that sexual orientation was covered by executive order in 1998, it seems long past time.
Revenue Sharing
We just need more money, lots of it, for spending on schools, infrastructure, jobs, child care, housing production, etc. The War on Poverty was lost and John McCain should be deeply concerned and embarrassed because our reputation as successful warriors around the world plummeted as a result. We only declared a truce and never officially cut and ran from this War, as far as I know. But poverty is definitely gaining on us, and we need to rearm, pronto.
100 Years of War
I am with Stan. If we are going to go to war for 100 years, let us make war against poverty. Let us do battle with unemployment and underemployment. Instead of rebuilding Iraq, let us put people to work rebuilding West Philly and North Philly. Let us go to war with the folks making money off of the sale of illegal firearms in our city. Our ethanol must be economic development and schools that teach.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
— Margaret Mead
Seth
Our Ethanol Should be Infrastructure
Looking for the best literal connection, I was going to say that Pennsylvania's ethanol is coal, but than I moved on from the energy/natural resource issue to a real issue that is impacting Pennsylvania as a rust belt state; that of our aging and failing infrastructure. This issue impacts the entire country, not just corn growers in a few midwest states.
In mid-January, Rendell, Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg got together to announce the Building America's Future coalition. It received media coverage for one day and the media moved on. There has been scant mention of our infrastructure needs during the presidential campaign from any of the candidates that were or are still in the campaign. The amount of ailing bridges, substandard schools, lack of investment in renewable energy infrastructure, and aging mass transportation systems in this country is appalling.
Infrastructure investment can be a win win on many levels from economic stimulus to jobs to national security to education, yet it is not a strong political issue as infrastructure takes a long time to get built. The U.S. tax refund program that will be giving all types of money back to people in a few months will have much less economic benefit and little long term benefit, as opposed to investing the money in infrastructure, which has a significant long term impact on jobs, a high multiplier effect, and improvements to productivity and technology. The problem is that the benefits from infrastructure investments take time to happen and people would not see the immediate benefit or get their reward of a tax refund. As Gov. Rendell is one of the three main leaders in this effort it would be goood to see him take a leadership role in this process, ideally as a leader and a Governor and not as a supporter of one of the candidate's campaigns. It would also be good to see the remaining candidates look at a longer term vision for America, which is what it will take for adopting a vision that supports major investments in our country's infrastructure.
The New GI Bill
I totally agree -- and while people may not see an immediate benefit to infrastructure investment, the consequences of failing to invest in infrastructure can be astonishingly immediate, from flooded levees to collapsed bridges.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell had a very good installment on BigThink about the idea of a 21st-century GI bill to invest in both infrastructure and human capital, with the goal both of conserving our existing resources and creating a new middle class. If there's interest, I would love to blog about this idea more.
Another point about infrastructure
This is really a great issue to hammer away at in the general election. If you're Clinton, you can say that this is the nuts-and-bolts kind of legislation that I know more about than anyone else. If you're Obama, you can talk about how the disaster of the war has led to our own country falling apart, and the need for unity and a bold vision.
If you're either, you can say that this is the disaster of Republican leadership: cooking up bills to ban Chinese engineering students and votes to divide the electorate about cloning or Terry Schiavo (or whatever) while the country crumbles all around them.
Maglev
What's our ethanol? If you mean what's the most useless thing to which people in our state are pinning all of their hopes for the future of their local economy, then it's that ridiculous levitating train our in Southwestern PA.
But, as stupid as ethanol
But, as stupid as ethanol is, it does provide a big tangible, net benefit to the State.
You mean by increasing the cost of corn?
Which then causes increases in the cost of virtually everything else?
Yes, by providing a huge
Yes, by providing a huge market for, and therefore propping up the price of commodity corn.
Now, obviously, there is an argument that the entire agribusiness, ADM biz model has actually hurt farmers, but you know what I am sayin'.
Ugh
I don't want to know what our ethanol is, because the whole ethanol thingee is just a handout to huge businesses, orchestrated by politicians who have their strings pulled by agribusiness, which we are all going to pay for at the pump and the supermarket.
How about this - a very close relative: how about promoting urban farming? The Weaver's Way (Mort Brooks memorial) Farm could use a handout of a million or two.
Urban Farming
For what it's worth, one of the entries in our (CP's) pandering guide is about urban farming; Lori Litchman spoke with Jade Gleaner of Mill Creek Farm, who thought that federal subsidies would really help urban farms establish wider distribution networks.
On urban farming:
Thanks for pointing that out:
Check out the Weaver's Way Farm some time. An article would be great. We're expanding the related educational programs in the neighborhood schools, and our capacity to provide good produce to the wider community.
Maybe you can arrange for Obama and/or Clinton to do a CP photo op on location?