The dismal economy is casting a long dark shadow over technology and innovation and the best solution the government can come up with is to rebuild roads and bridges. Oh, there are "green" jobs in the works, but exactly what that means and whether or not investing taxpayer's green in "green" things is economically sustainable hasn't been given much thought. After all, once something is clean and green, do you still need to spend the same amount of money on it? Maybe a little bit of dirt is good, after all.

Transportation, it is agreed, is a key to progress and economic recovery - if you're stuck in the industrial age. The Information age has reached its zenith, trajectory flattening out as we now know as much as we can know within the limitations of the human brain and the extraordinary resources of the Internet. The road ahead is one of socio-religious conflict and resource wars, the hallmarks of a declining civilization at the mercy of global overpopulation. Perhaps better roads are needed in order to defend our nation from all directions, although there doesn't seem to be much of a need to go anywhere, an an unemployment check doesn't buy a ticket to Disney.

Some may argue that we need to rebuild transportation as a way to sustain our industrial age economy. While others argue that there isn't the same level of need for transportation (roads, Interstates, bridges, etc.) if the industrial base has dwindled (I'm reluctant to use the term "downsized", but the meaning is the same). Most people agree that the new industrial economy, whatever it may look like, isn't going to require the same level or type of transportation, meaning trucks, railroads, and ships, as in the past. A more self-sufficient, ecologically neutral economy just won't be driven by conspicuous consumption and instantaneous self-gratification of the past forty years.

Besides, who is going to pay for it? Generations X, Y and whatever our grandchildren are going to be labeled as are going to be the most closely regulated, monitored, and policed population in history. Think Orwell's 1984 here. The new democrats are morphing into the new social democrats, with overall approval and unconscious surrender of individuality and freedom. The rationale goes like this: 1) We have a National Problem too big to solve, 2) We must have our Citizens pay for it, 3) Taxes and War are Good, 4) Don't worry, be Happy, and 5) Our well-being depends upon obeying principles 1 through 4.

Now that I think of it, there's really no need to invest in transportation, because before long we won't be able to go anywhere.