The stimulus is changing the US in ways we don’t always notice

Those who know me well know where I tend to stand, but in the current divisive political climate, I tend to stay away from politics in this blog in order to concentrate on what we can agree on. That isn’t to say that everyone is going to agree with me when I say that we need to break our oil addiction, reduce greenhouse gases and address climate change, reduce waste, and live more sustainably. There are plenty of people who don’t. But I am saying that concern about those issues isn’t relegated solely to one side of the aisle or the other.

That said, I can’t bring up this article about the Obama green agenda and stimulus funds and still shy away from politics, as it highlights the intersection of government, policy, economy, and sustainability/green issues. I urge you to read the entire thing; I know I learned a lot about the stimulus from it. In short, there are lots of green initiatives in it that I didn’t know about. It is an attempt on a very large scale to wean us off our current destructive habits, and it goes much deeper than I had thought. Those who believe the government shouldn’t interfere in such things will object on principle. Those who believe the federal government is the only entity capable of steering us in a better direction will probably applaud it.

Historians and economists often compare this recession and stimulus to the New Deal of the 1930s. The New Deal changed the United States in fundamental ways; so too might this stimulus. The most obvious difference according to the article is the lack of physical monuments produced as a result of the New Deal. If it succeeds, this stimulus’ equivalent will be new ways of doing things, rather than new buildings to stand in. I’m interested to see how it turns out.