Comments on: Civil Engineering & The Presidential Election http://blog.civilengineeringcentral.com/2008/10/07/civil-engineering-the-presidential-election/ building teams . engineering careers Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:30:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: aepcentral http://blog.civilengineeringcentral.com/2008/10/07/civil-engineering-the-presidential-election/#comment-199 Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:02:39 +0000 http://civilengineeringcentral.wordpress.com/?p=322#comment-199 In following up to this blog entry, I found this article recently posted on the CNN website which gives provides some relevant information as well. Here is the link:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/15/news/economy/infrastructure_and_economy/?postversion=2008101506

Matt

]]> By: John Lesnik http://blog.civilengineeringcentral.com/2008/10/07/civil-engineering-the-presidential-election/#comment-195 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:51:43 +0000 http://civilengineeringcentral.wordpress.com/?p=322#comment-195 In this election cycle I think it matters not at all which candidate favors one particular program that may seem to favor civil engineers. Civil engineers need to be reminded that the private sector is the only source of wealth and captial formation. Public works spending can assist the private sector, but public spending creates no wealth in the absence of a vibrant private economy. Therefore, a candidate that promises increased spending across a broad range of programs that we may favor will be helpless to actually deliver the goods if the economy collapses under an onslaught of higher taxes and regulation. The favored illustration of public works spending under Roosevelt in the 1930s clearly does not apply today. After World War I the U.S. was the world’s largest creditor nation. The Federal government had huge capital reserves and was able to spend (waste?) them on the New Deal. We now know this actually extended the Great Depression. In contrast, we are today the world’s biggest debtor. The Federal government has few of the options available 70 years ago since it can only spend money if foreign investors can be convinced to buy the debt that would be created by infrastructure spending. That’s looks like an increasingly dicey proposition.

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