This article is part of “The America We Need,” a Times Opinion series exploring how the nation can emerge from this crisis stronger, fairer and more free. Read the introductory editorial and the editor’s letter.
Hopefully, when Congress gets done allocating several trillion dollars simply to keep the economy afloat, we will be able to have another discussion: What should we invest in so we don’t just burden young Americans with a mountain of new debt, but also arm them with the tools to grow out of it and still prosper in the 21st century?
These could be the most important and precious dollars we spend, so we need to invest them wisely, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt did in the 1930s by creating the Works Progress Administration and the Rural Electrification Act — giant infrastructure programs that not only helped lift us out of the Depression but also made us more productive to this day.
There are many things that I can think of — surely improved public health facilities will be on the list — but here are three less obvious investments that I’m certain would make America more resilient, more prosperous, healthier and more equal in the A.C. — After Corona — era:
- More cheap, domestically produced, low- and zero-carbon energy so we become less vulnerable to the oil price manipulations of Saudi Arabia and Russia and less likely to court Mother Nature’s next curve ball: climate change.
- Expanded high-speed internet connectivity everywhere, but particularly in rural America, so more people can participate in the innovation economy.
- Deployment across America of more affordable tools of invention, design and manufacturing — so more people can build more hardware at the points of need and help innovate our way out of this crisis — not just wait to be bailed out or for the next shipment from China.
Let me offer examples of each, starting with energy.
A lot has been going on behind the scenes on the global energy front that actually holds the promise of not only making America more energy independent, but doing it based more on clean energy than fossil fuels — if we play our cards right. But Donald Trump has not been playing our cards right. Trump has been dancing with Russia and Saudi Arabia — the opposite of investing in a clean energy economy.
