Fixing Gridlock - Infrastructure, Education, Rejuvenation

 I've been considering what it would take to fix this country, and I've come up with a couple items that would definitely need to be part of the plan.  The first thing that needs to be fixed and it can be done in conjunction with the second, is to begin repairing our aging infrastructure.  A recent estimate indicates that it would cost approximately $700 billion to improve our infrastructure in order to bring it up to a passing grade. 

Some of these deficiencies have very real costs to economic growth. The poor condition of roads, the engineers estimated, costs $120 billion a year in repairs, operating costs and time wasted in traffic - that's equivalent to a full percentage point of the economy.

"There's a tremendous need," said Larry Roth, a professional engineer who is deputy executive director of the engineers' group. "Not only are we not keeping pace with growth, but we're not keeping pace with the maintenance that's required. As a result, our infrastructure is simply crumbling."

To eliminate its weaknesses, the United States would have to spend about $160 billion a year over five years, Roth added. That total of $800 billion is not so different from the $700 billion in estimated direct spending on the war in Iraq.

Source: Is aging infrastructure slowing the U.S.? - International Herald Tribune

We also need to entirely re-train the US workforce.  If were going to compete in a global economy we need lots and lots of the smartest people working on the toughest issues of the day.  We need millions of super educated citizens.

These two goals do not have to be mutually exclusive.  Many citizens as they go back to school to receive their first or second bachelors degree, could work part time in a nationwide project to improve our infrastructure.  In essence we could kill two birds with one stone, funding the education of American workers and literally repaving our roads and rebuilding our infrastructure nationwide.

At the end of the project we would have a brand-new infrastructure, and we would have a re trained highly skilled and highly organized workforce capable of rebuilding a country.