Dear Mr President, My Suggestion For Infrastructure Spending
I happen to be a fan of the government investing money into what is commonly called infrastructure projects. I strongly believe that any reasonable businessperson, even one who works for the government, should be able to invest money at 1% interest rates and get a better than 2% return on taxpayer money. But I think its time to rethink how we spend a big chunk of that money.
If it was me spending the money, I would take 100 billion of the proposed $ 1 Trillion dollars in infrastructure investment and invest it in Robotics.
I would invest it in the companies that do R&D, software, and design for robots and every other facet of the Robotics Industry.
Unfortunately, none of the companies that actually make the robotics are based here in the USA. That’s a problem that needs to be solved. We need to help develop domestic companies much like we did the electric car and wind and solar industries. Even if it means trying to help pick winners.
We have to win the robotics race. We are not even close right now.
A new report says China is spending far more on Robotics than we are. China, Korea, EU are offering billions in credits to support their robotics industry. We spend about $100mm . That ain’t gonna work.
The good news, if there is any, is that according to the report China is only spending $ 3B dollars a year on robotics. We need to quickly pass them by.
Why is this so important ? Because technological change always accelerates. It never stagnates over time. Which means we are going to face the fact that if nothing in the States changes, we will find ourselves dependent on other countries for almost everything that can and will be manufactured in a quickly approaching future.
We have to face the fact that countries are going to lose jobs to robotics. The only question that needs to be answered is which country will create and own the best robotic technology and have the infrastructure necessary to enable it.
Right now it’s not the USA and that needs to change.
Our “infrastructure” spending should look forwards, not backwards so that we can be the robotics hub of the world.
Disclosure: None.
I agree with spending on infrastructure. This would help the united states grow further, for a brighter future.
It would be nice if wall money went for infrastructure.
Conflating infrastructure spending with industrial policy is not sound public policy. The world is littered with horribly admiinistered government projects that are now tombstones marking capital destruction.
When I was growing up in western PA during the steel industry's decline, my Congressman was signing onto every pork-barrel project he could to buy jobs for the citizens of his district. One was a synthetic fuels plant that lasted not even for one Congressional term, because the business model was unsupportable. In the last decade, the US has spent hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing 'renewable energy' and today renewable energy represents roughly the same proportion of our total energy supply that it did 10 years ago. Without any direct government support and against a great deal of government imposed adversity, private capital drove domestic oil and natural gas production dramatically higher over the same time period the government was destroying capital chasing renewable energy fads. I'm not suggesting that renewable energy is not a laudable endeavor, but that there is plenty of private capital to foster the growth of promising renewable technology,
More pointedly on the topic of infrastructure--I think assigning an aggregate amount of infrastructure spending turns a reasonable process on its head. Why not have the Federal Government set non-financial criteria for potentially green-lighting infrastructure projects, and then vet incoming proposals on their own merits. Why not learn from the last infrastructure binge in 2009 when nearly a trillion dollars were spent, but all we really learned was that there weren't that many 'shovel ready projects'.
I am not a fan of some #robotics. I went to #CES and there was a robot with a girl's face, and it was pictured taking fast food orders. I would boycott any store that replaces cashiers. On the other hand, I am sure there are positive #robots. As far as government involvement in projects, Hoover Dam built Las Vegas, a city of 2 million people, Charles.