don’t panic

When I was a kid, they had this great carousel down in Balboa Park.  As part of the ride, they had a “ring dispenser” that they would move into range of the outside edge wooden horses once the thing got moving.  The original idea with this was that because the outside horses typically didn’t move up and down, and were subsequently less “amusing”, the ring game was an enticement to get people to fill out the whole ride instead of waiting for a moving horse.  An arm or sorts would be swung out and the device itself would dispense an infinite series of metal rings that riders could lean over and snag if they were dexterous enough.  Most of the rings were steel, and you would chuck those into a target zone as you went around.  But now and again, there was a brass ring, which, if you were lucky enough to snag, would get you a prize, or maybe a free extra ride.  It’s from these carousels that we get the phrase, “go for the brass ring”.  It’s the idea that you need to go for it and get as much out of life as possible.  Most of the time you’re going to grab steel, but if you never try for that brass ring, then you’ll never know the prize.

And to a certain extent, that philosophical idea is valid… if it weren’t for all those worthless steel rings.  This is the problem that I see happening with the “stimulus package” being proposed by our current administration.  Mind you, I don’t bash Democrats very often (no need, the Republicans do a dandy job) but this one kinda irks me.  One of Obama’s selling points was that he was going to remove the “pork” from politics.  And to his credit, I’m sure he’s giving it a good shot.  The problem is, although the staff in the White House is new, you still have much the same Congress, and when those dogs smell money, it’s just too hard to resist throwing your favorite cause into a bill so massive that it exceeds the combined national GNP of about 3/4 of the world.  The more money that’s involved, the greater the drool.  800 billion dollars has got to have them salivating all over the place.  And so they say, “why not go for it?  I’m only asking for a teeny-tiny fraction of that money pile.”

But it’s all steel rings.  Sure those things would be nice, and in a vague and round-about way I’m sure you could even say that they might stimulate something economic.  But it’s a lot more likely that they are simply thrown in to stimulate something that comes on election day.  Strangely, I’m not at all sure that simply throwing money at the problem is the answer at all.  We, as a nation are all for dumping billions on a problem that really has nothing at all to do with money, but are unwilling to make the “free” changes that will actually make a difference.  A recession is a self-sustaining condition.  Sure, like a fire, you can douse it, but in the case of the U.S. economy, using money to put out our financial fires is akin to fighting a forest fire with dixie cups of drinking water.

So what are the “free” changes that I am talking about?  How about simply dictating that the United States is going to actively focus on renewable energy production and the creation of tools to get there.  Any company that wants to reconfigure itself to help in that regard gets a big tax break and maybe a slice of that 800 billion dollar pie.  The catch:  You have to completely focus your business on renewable energy.  No 10% crap.  All in or all out.  The United States could easily lead the world in the creation of solar cells and advanced battery technology.  We could easily hold a major percentage of the global market for these technologies that are almost certain to be at the forefront of the next century’s worth of science research.  We have the facilities and the economic need.  We’re ready for a major change.  The timing is ripe. Literally, all we have to do is decide that’s were we want to go.

The country that can put out an uber-battery will own the world.  It’s that simple.  Almost every single problem globally can be helped or solved by basically being able to store large amounts of cheap energy.  Whether it’s the production of food, transportation, or the desalination of water, everything relies on the storage or energy, not its production.  There is no shortage of energy as some would have you believe.  It’s literally raining down on us all the time.  It’s in the oceans and rivers, the wind, and even in the billions of stepping feet across the globe.  The problem has never been the production, only the storage.  Solve that and all the rest falls into place.

So here’s a note to the guys and gals deciding right now how many years my daughter is going to have to be your indentured servant to pay for all those steel rings…  GET OFF THE CAROUSEL!  Forget the brass ring and stop playing around.  You have serious work to do, and we the people are tired of you tossing steel at targets that only help you get re-elected.  YOU WORK FOR ME!  Now do your damn jobs!