this article was written by Monica Davey for the NY Times. the audience this article is trying to reach is everyone in America who wants to know just how and where the stimulus money will be spent. The article is coming from a left wing perspective and written in a left wing media outlet as well. The point of the argument is that states are going to be jockeying for money over other states and this process will most likely trickle down to the local level as well.
The fact of the matter is that for the stimulus money, the line forms to the left with every governer and mayor with their hand out, or both hands out. The end result is likely going to be that everyone is going feel shortchanged on this money. 787, even if equally distributed by 50 states is only 15.4 billion per state, then you need to see how the state would likely distribute that down per city/town.etc... Now, equality of distribution is wishful thinking and wont happen so let that go, that means some states (yes the bigger more revenue providing states, FL, CA, TX, NY etc...) will probably see the strongest percentage of this money. Is that right, wrong? who is to say I guess.
This mystery of distribution should and hopefully will be spelled out from jump street. If you tell people what to expect from the get go you are more likely to have a positive and more orderly result. The money should be first slated toward the states with the highest unemployment first. Most of these states with 10% plus unemployment have seen job loss in the areas of manufacturing, a working infrastructure in this country that is quickly going out like a light and will never return. It would be a good thing to invest in education for alot of these workers, maybe a free 2 yr college plan like so many politicians advertised in their electoral ploys last fall. This will help educate the uneducated, a sector of our population that has relied on manufacturing jobs to put food on the table for decades now. With menial jobs no longer being a scapegoat, maybe then we will stop letting other countries catch up to us and eventually surpass us in an educated workforce and innovation. Lets hope that the president does a good job on divying up the pie so that the right and most key elements of our injured workforce gets to eat.
