If we build it, jobs will come

By Dale Bowling

 

As I mentioned a few days ago in my post on the American Jobs Act, one of the best ways to create jobs is to create and improve infrastructure. 

This is true for three reasons:

1) Workers take their wages and buy things from other people who in turn cycle the money through the economy.

2) The project requires raw materials which benefit other local firms (and their employees) which supply them.

3) In the end, taxpayers get something valuable that helps move goods and services more easily and cheaply - fueling further economic growth.

The Obama Stimulus created millions of jobs in this way. Joliet’s new transportation center for which Gov. Pat Quinn broke ground this past Friday provides a further example.

A combination of state, local and private capital will fund renovations on this important stop on the new high-speed line from Chicago to St. Louis. Already a key transportation center, the Joliet station will be able to handle more passengers and cargo comfortably and the project will create 400 construction jobs now and countless jobs as a result of increased traffic over the decades to come.

America’s infrastructure has fallen on hard times lately. It was been decades since the last major investment in highways, railways and bridges.

Comprehensive development of America’s aging infrastructure would create an enormous number of jobs in the short term, which would quickly stimulate other sectors of the economy as workers spent their money at the grocery store, the mall, and elsewhere.

And let’s not forget the long term effects of improved infrastructure. If a business can cheaply offer its goods and services further afield, it will and this fuels economic growth.

Democrats, like President Obama and Gov. Quinn are committed to getting Americans back to work and improving the economy over the long haul. Vote Democrat on November 6^th.