Solar Powered Economics

Value comes from building things that people want to buy: electric cars, solar powered houses, and peace. To turn this depression around, we have to create jobs that help America and cannot be exported [such as] building solar powered homes. Building decentralized, home based, solar systems would save money in four ways: less need to import oil, less need to burn dangerous coal, and no need to upgrade the old electric grid, no need to build a massive solar farm in desert areas.

Every study of a single payer health care system shows it would cut our health care costs in half.

John Doerr, the Silicon Valley the long range visionary VC leader, wants Obama to spend most of the stimulus on advancing solar technology. And to save the environment. This is long term thinking. He is probably right. Being who he is and what he does, let us assume he probably has a better finger on the pulse then most in the world. And his motives are more pure.

We are addicted to oil. To break the addiction we must find every possible way to hitch our wagons to the Sun.

Fifty bridges to where? The harder call is repairing one bridge in each state.

I would think we would be smarter to build a high speed solar powered, mag-level, bullet train from: LA to Sacramento, to Seattle, to KC, to Chicago, to NY, to DC, to Miami. Sort of a solar version of what Eisenhower did in building our interstate highway program. Solar panels and windmills along the tracks could power the train and magnets.

One easy, quick way to create 10 million new jobs, this year, would be to lower the Federal work week to a 30 hour week, for all Federal jobs, for 5 years, to create jobs for all the returning veterans and high school graduates.

"Patriotic Retirement" Would Fix The Economy

There's about 40 million people over 50 years old in the work force - pay them $1 million apiece severance ($100,000 each year over 10 years) with the following stipulations:

1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - UNEMPLOYMENT FIXED
2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - AUTO INDUSTRY FIXED.
3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - HOUSING CRISIS FIXED.
Like we have been saying, government is bailing out the wrong people.

Imagine the culture benefit of 40 million seniors and their families able to pursue their dreams, freed of economic fears—a unique vision of social transformation! Let's also throw in some green jobs, preventive healthcare, and college scholarships. These plans make a lot more sense than bailing out investment banks! Incidentally, an idea similar to Da Vid's was also published in the St. Petersburg Times, with the tag line, "if you think it would work, please forward to everybody you know." Pay it forward, dear reader....

"Hey, works for me...."

Regarding Da Vid's letter regarding "patriotic retirement" ...please send a check to me and to my hubby to: [address withheld by editor] Tiburon. We'd be glad to give up our jobs which we now hold in order to pay our rent, put food on the table, to pay for health care and our 2 remaining kids at home.

Or should we just walk out to the forests lining Route 1 and starve ourselves to death to make room for the younger generation? We await his decision.

Bored By Global Warming

You must realize by now that your interest in enviro issues is not shared by 99% of the world. Even in Northern California "Ecotopia" most people simply turn off. It's like an involuntary reaction with me. On the first sentence of ecobabble, my mind instantly shuts down and places the incoming chatter on a conveyor belt to a mental trash can while cueing my face to assume a freakish but vaguely polite rictus. In one ear and out the other, as they say.

Despite your complete disinterest in environmentalism, we probably share the same basic values: All of us have a right to survive; food should be safe; energy should be clean and renewable; and bureaucrats should be able to price this into the costs of doing business so you don't even have to think about it. So, don't worry about clean water or insulation or LED light bulbs. Just VOTE for the right candidates, and the rest of us will take care of the details.

Los Angeles OPEN EXCHANGE?

Recently, I found this magazine while I was visiting San Fransisco. I live in Los Angeles, and I've been wondering if this magazine is also issued in Los Angeles.

Our focus is Northern California—we haven't gone Hollywood quite yet—but you can always read our mag online at www.openexchange.org. So be sure to check out our online Calendar when scheduling trips to the Bay Area.