How is a highway like a teacher's job?
Who says highway spending isn't social engineering?
Sen. Jim Inhofe, that's who.
And Rep. Dan Boren too.
Inhofe and Boren (and Rep. Mary Fallin) took turns criticizing the federal stimulus program earlier this week in front of a bunch of road contractors in McAlester.
"The thing that is so stupid … is that … only 7 percent stimulates anything," Inhofe said. "The rest is social engineering."
Boren stood up and said, "Sen. Inhofe is absolutely correct."
Well, I'm glad to hear there's bipartisan agreement that money dedicated to roads and bridges is "stimulus" (i.e. good) and money spent on schools, public safety, health programs and anything else is "social engineering" (i.e. evil).
The truth is: It's all both, and social engineering is neither good nor evil necessarily.
If you used stimlulus money to pay a salary to a new police officer – or a teacher or a computer guru hired to digitize medical records – and what happens? That person spends the money. You have stimulated the economy as much as if you put the money in asphalt or concrete.
But wait, the congressional delegation says, highways provide a means of getting goods and services to consumers. There's a link between the money spent and the efficiency of the economy.
But all the other programs play just as key a role in building the economy.
Hire a cop; increase public safety; allow the economy to grow. Hire a teacher; increase the competence of school students; make the economy more productive. Digitize medical records; decrease the cost of health care; make the economy more profitable.
Inhofe's argument is to turn all the economic good deeds of 93 percent of the stimulus package into something dark and foreboding, "social engineering." It sounds like something out of "1984."
In fact, Inhofe's pet -- highway construction -- is absolutely social engineering too, meaning it is the government prioritizing its spending in such a way as to influence how we live our lives.
Fund a four-lane highway to a suburb and guess what happens? People move to that suburb. You have socially engineered suburban life and socially engineered the decline of the city.
Widen an arterial street and guess what happens? Traffic increases on that street, attracting fast food restaurants and convenience stores. You have socially engineered sprawl.
Build interstate highways through the countryside and guess what happens? The transportation of food gets cheaper. You have socially engineered big corporate agriculture and socially engineered the decline of local farm production.
Every penny of road funding is social engineering – a tax-funded subsidy to trucking companies and their clients, and the pollution that they produce.
