[quote=jstoesz]I just finished watching a documentary on Growing up in MN, I remember more than a few signs for the ccc. Now in california, I think half the hiking trails were built by some alphabet soup camp.
I do not understand food stamps, lets build some stuff. Why is it so hard? The hoover dam and the golden gate were built in the depression, why can’t we get that stuff off the ground now?
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Not sure if you realize it, but the detailed 1940 census data was just released. I’ve spent a few hours pouring over it, seeing whether the stories that have been passed down over the generations are true. I wondered if what I heard about my grandparents generation really happened that way, or whether things have been embellished.
Having reviewed the census data on about 5 relatives who were in their 20s and 30s in 1940, I found something astounding: every one of them worked for the WPA and had done so for about half a year. Every one!
They weren’t building Hoover Dam (though my grandfather on the other side of the family did) or the Golden Gate bridge. They were each doing much more mundane jobs such as driving trucks for road projects, and plastering new or rebuilt schools. They were working on projects that have been forgotten over time.
Fast foward to the last 4 years. Obama implements the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). $46 billion of that is going for transportation and mass transit projects.
On October 2, 2009 Schwarzenegger applied for $4.7 billion for California’s high speed rail. The White House approved $2.35 billion of that, and it is part of the funding being used right now to construct it.
Is it being implemented overnight? Well, no, there are hoops that have to be jumped through for sure. It is taking more time than 1940. But I tell you what, I’d rather go through all the environmental checks and other approvals than to have some irresponsible beaurocrat implement something as monumentally stupid as the roadway built through the Roman Forum by Mussolini from 1931-1933:
