How we think/not think Part two

There maybe a part three also, but for now I am breaking part two into A and B

Part A is just my thoughts around how we act sometimes. You see so many people who think they are tough by getting mad at something stupid that happens. We were at a restaurant the other day and some man was getting mad over something pretty simple to solve. My wife made the comment why doesn't he just say what he wants and get over it. Instead he went on and on about the same thing. And then he walked back to the table acting like he was some kind of tough guy or something. And you see things like this all the time. People getting bent out of shape over nothing and then bragging about how they handled the situation.

To me doing the right thing seems to be the toughest thing for people to do. Especially doing it on a regular basis. So when you see people do the right thing regularly and especially for others you are truly seeing a "tough guy".

Now about being practical, or how do we think/not think on a practical basis.

Last time I wrote that I had this great idea after Katrina for New Orleans so I am going to try and put it on paper as best as I remember. It is definitely a large project that would need buy in from all sorts of players.

We let New Orleans sit and fester and now we are facing another monumental disaster if another Category 4 storm hits.

Yet we were given the opportunity to do something completely different, in fact, even a model for the rest of the world to follow. We could have rebuilt New Orleans completely taking into consideration of keeping the historic city, but moving the practical city away from the coast. Since I am not an artist or cartologist you will have to picture this in your mind as I go along.

We know New Orleans is at or below sea level and on a major river. They built levees etc hoping that would protect the city. Obviously that failed.

Let's take the general population and move it away from the coast, build an infrastructure that protects the historic part of the city, the central business district, other established business areas, the river front, and the river/sea traffic.

You take the human component; the houses,the shopping, the general things we need for day to day living and put them onto I 10 or some other inland area and build large mass transportation systems to move the general population into the work area, the historic district, downtown, the Superdome etc.. Instead of building levees you build channels that the storm surge can go. Basically you cannot fight nature, but you can prepare for it and do things that alleviate some of the destruction. And you still keep the part of New Orleans that makes it such a wonderful place to visit. So instead of lives and livelihood being destroyed only property is destroyed and that is something we can replace.

Is this easy? No. Will it take time? Yes.

That doesn't matter though because there is a huge benefit to restructuring. First the rebuilding project would create a mini new economy. There is the potential for new technological advances as we work to build the channels for the storm surges, the mass transportation system, and other needs that arise to build this project.

And to go back to the point in my first Part of How we think/don't think, we don't use the federal government to do everything. The project would be better served if it is a public private partnership with most of the investment coming from the private sector and the federal government being the facilitator and paying for the research of what would be needed. The City is involved in planning and zoning so the local community has a voice in the final picture. The State in helping to reshape the surrounding area so the City could move into currently uninhabited or sparsely inhabited areas. The private sector invests the money and receive two benefits. The first being tax breaks for their investments and two they get to participate in an expanding economy that offers large scale opportunity to do business. Insurance companies can also be involved by investing and then in the long run they benefit when there is manageable costs to the next storm.

There are so many types of industries that would benefit. Obviously construction companies receive a strong proportion of new business, but just about every type of industry could find some opportunity. Creative ways to build mass transportation would be encouraged so high tech jobs would be in demand. Lets say you build mass transportation that relies on alternative fuels or natural gas then another new industry develops. Retail would flourish as new opportunities creates new jobs so people would have disposable income. And there would be opportunities for new companies and small businesses to develop. This could be made part of the overall plan. Basically corporations fuel the investment to start the projects and reap the rewards as the project comes into fruition. This avoids a tax nightmare for the whole country. There is a direct risk/reward factor and the government/taxpayer doesn't pay the risk and corporations get the reward. The role of the government would be to facilitate to help it be successful. So yes there is government oversight, but once the city is rebuilt the need for oversight is over. The local governments would then be in charge as they are now. Or you could expand the project up and down the gulf states so hurricanes don't create the destruction they do now on people's lives, but the population as a whole can enjoy the benefits and beauty of life on the gulf. You still have tourism and fishing for example, but the impact on overall life and livelihood is minimized. Of course there is much more to this project, but hopefully this gives you a picture to start.

This is forward thinking. Prepare for the inevitable without taking away our way of life and what we enjoy. Is it perfect? No. You cannot prevent natural disasters, but you can mitigate their impact with the right kind of thinking. It is how we think as a society that matters. Or do we continue not to think?

Another example is something I have discussed before in a post. This is definitely a National project and that is long term water planning. I talked about using our interstate system as the guide to create a series of national canals to move water around as needed and to alleviate potential flood problems. You can't completely prevent floods, but with the right planning etc you can open canals in anticipation of heavy rain events to start the water moving out of rivers into canals so as the rain develops the river levels are already adjusting in advance. Will it prevent all floods? No, but will lessen the severe ones. And the other benefit is the multitudes of businesses and industries that could develop or have resources needed to flourish. And the overall benefit is we have a regulated water system that is protected and flexible. The Federal government isn't required to build the whole thing. Again a public private partnership is developed where our government's role is to facilitate and pay for the research, but the industries that benefit help pay for the infrastructure to begin. Secondary benefits are we turn large areas of the desert into new agriculture, help with droughts, and even industries like fracking for oil or natural gas have the water they need without usurping water for people. You can take the run off from flood water and use that for non potable projects and then use the canals to filter the rest of the water for people and agriculture. It would take some work to create all this, but well worth the investment when you look at what has been happening over the last few years.

Another aspect of the above is use of Social Security benefits to help fund the project, but as investment money to create more income for the social security program. If the Federal government removes SS taxes from the regular budget and keeps it separate like it is suppose to do, then you can invest part of the proceeds each year in local bonds that earn interest so going forward you have interest income and payroll taxes keeping the social security system alive and well. This is dissimilar to Wall Street investing the money because it has specific purposes the Federal government can hold people accountable for their actions. And water is such a needed resource that there will always be practical ways to get the income from water development.

Another way to think or do we continue to not think.

Some ideas that have been tossed around in some shape or fashion by different groups, think tanks, and people, however, we never take the action to plan ahead. If we are to continue to be the greatest country on the planet we need to rethink how we do business in our country. We have the opportunity to show the world a whole new way to plan just like our constitution has given us a whole new way to govern. Let us take advantage of what has been given to us and show the world what really can be done if you think about it.

And finally we need to rethink our education system. I have discussed this before so will let it go for now, but there are much better ways to educate children than what we do now. The research out there is tremendous. It is time we started reshaping the future.


Some thoughts on a hot and muggy night here in Texas. And if you watched the game, it looked like San Antonio was dragging around in this heat instead of playing the Heat.