Acccording to Mr. Herbert: "The link between the need to rebuild the nation's crumbling infrastructure and the crucial need to find new resources of employment in this economic downturn should be obvious, a no-brainer."
Hmmm. I racked what is left of my gray matter and shot off the following rejoinder:
It is not just about creating jobs.
It is more important to nurture workplaces that proffer needed and desired products and services that assure future American economic leadership and provide the basis for sustainable employment.
Foolish me. I sent this epistle early, it was included on the first page of online comments, and I reaped my just rewards: Whereas comment no. 7 received some 250 reader recommendations, I received 15, and if I hadn't cheated by recommending myself, I might have ended up with the lowest total on the page.
Where did I go wrong? Had I only made referrence to those avaricous banks and nefarious Republicans! Alas, too late.
Suddenly a vision dawned on me, a bolt of lightning shooting across neglected neurons and synapses: Armies of obese MBAs, formerly employed by Lehman Brothers and General Motors, crisscrossing the U.S. with picks and shovels, singing "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go", repairing the nation's decrepit bridges and highways . . . and 20 years later, with America's bridges and highways impassable and a white-haired Mr. Herbert acknowledging that civil engineering is a skilled profession, teams of talented Chinese laborers undoing the damage and securing these vital transportation links for America's fleets of Hondas, Mazdas and Toyotas.
