Crumbling America

I watched the "Crumbling America" program on the History Channel recently, which was about the neglected infrastructure such as collapsing bridges and levees. (Which is being replayed this saturday and I highly recommend, as it is an issue not getting enough press.)

http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=452430&action=detail

During the program it was said the electrical grid is also in need of repairs, and the number $1.5 trillion was floated out, to keep the grid running by 2030. If this isn't taken care of, basically, forget about internet, electric lighting, A/C, subways, hospitals, runnning water, or anything else from modern life. Now, if my figures are correct, we just paid that much money on the Stimulus Package. Combine that with my last entry on solar power and the Bailout Bill, and we just spent enough money on "bailouts" to have unlimited renewable energy for the next century. We threw $2 trillion into a money pit of an economy and have nothing to show for it, when we could have converted the whole power grid to solar & repaired all power lines and transformers in the country. It's not a pie-in-the-sky dream, that much money would have gotten it done. That's how much $2 trillion is worth.

We Could Have Had Solar Power...

...for 1/4 the cost of the bailout!
In this month's National Geographic magazine article on solar power, a professor floated out the cost of $400 billion to build enough solar arrays in the desert of the American southwest to meet this country's energy needs. For reference, we just spent $700 billion on the recent bailout, and roughly $1.5 trillion on the economic stimulus package. Which comes to over 2 trillion dollars.

I'm not against spending large sums of money. I'm just against wasting it.