Economic Stimulus Package: How About Infrastructure and Innovation?

I agree that the tax break was a bad idea, and I am a recipient, just the same as every other American worker. That money went towards bills and some small home improvements, poof, gone. We will have to repay the taxes in the end, so what is the point?

Infrastructure - This is a big topic in Ohio, where the government lays two inches of asphalt on all major roads every two years. The road will break apart again. The gasoline costs, stress, and wasted time of the Orange Barrel Parades are reminiscent of a barbarian conquered slave line in Roman times. Do not be nuts, do not give the government more money for "infrastructure."

Bill Gates created the economy of the 1990's. Henry Ford helped to create an economy for 1940 - 1980. The solution to our troubles relies on entrepreneurs doing their own thing, plain and simple. This cannot be planned nor funded, it happens of its own accord.

Amen! I am glad to see I am not the only one who thought that putting money into infrastructure and research (which may actually benefit the United States in the long run) as opposed to giving back money to spend for short term items may have been the better choice.

Most (but not all) of our citizens have sacrificed long term goals for short term cheap thrills for so long that we largely forgot that the thrift, sacrifice, hard work and patience of our parents and grandparents are what made America the best country in the world to live in.

The Indians and the Chinese are simply acting like the immigrants that flooded this country in the early 20th century, except now they have no need to stay. They can simply come here, get educated in the best universities in the world (because they worked incredibly hard to get in) and take that knowledge to their home countries. And our students choose not to go into the technical fields because of the very real likelihood that their six figure technical job will be offshored.

We need to use the money to encourage (or pay for) American students to take that risk and keep America ahead of the curve so we do not end up simply as the best salesmen in the world with no creative talent.

I saw a bumper sticker on a car obviously driven by a very left leaning individual that real hit home. It said something to the effect of "We can always find money for wars but we can never seem to find enough money for education."

Enough said.

How about an even simpler idea "Stop spending movey you don't have and cut the deficit!". If local residents and businesses want a new road or bridge let them pay for it.

Support more basic research in science? YES.
Use that money to train visiting PhD students from abroad? NO.
Earmark that money to train and educate American citizens and permanent residents? Yes.
Part of the problem with the lack of science education in the US is the existance of an elite university system manned by faculty who care more about (a) beating their competitor scientist to the next block-buster paper in "Science" magazine than they do about education and (b) are too busy preening their egos.
My suggestion -as an insider- is to support the scientific research of academic scientist who are also willing to spend a _significant_ amount of time -say, 50%- in face-to-face teaching of junior high and high school students. Take the funding for this from the NIH and NSF budgets, if need be. Let the academic scientists teach in their subjects at 20 hours/week and let them do their own research at 20 + hours/week.
Also do away with the tenure system. There are too many faculty who sit on their bums after achieving tenure. Let them be reviewed by external committess on a five-year cyclical basis.

Support more basic research in science? YES.
Use that money to train visiting PhD students from abroad? NO.
Earmark that money to train and educate American citizens and permanent residents? YES.
Part of the problem with the lack of science education in the US is the existance of an elite university system manned by faculty who care more about (a) beating their competitor scientist to the next block-buster paper in "Science" magazine than they do about education and (b) are too busy preening their egos.
My suggestion -as an insider- is to support the scientific research of academic scientist who are also willing to spend a _significant_ amount of time -say, 50%- in face-to-face teaching of junior high and high school students. Take the funding for this from the NIH and NSF budgets, if need be. Let the academic scientists teach in their subjects at 20 hours/week and let them do their own research at 20 + hours/week.
Also do away with the tenure system. There are too many faculty who sit on their bums after achieving tenure. Let them be reviewed by external committess on a five-year cyclical basis.
I see that some other person has commented on GE. The majority of GE's hard science jobs are now in either India or the PRC.

How about giving baby boomer's 60 years old and above tax break on their hard end 401K and IRA tax free withdrawal on $20,000 to 25,000. Free of Federal and state and city tax. Not free $600 to 1,200 tax free stimulus that would make our country borrow several million dollars from other foreign countries. I think this is a better idea since it is our own money antway and now is the time to withdraw and help our own economic calamity.