It's not a mystery to most that the US federal government is in the midst of a massive effort to stimulate the suffering American economy. Funding in the range of $800 billion will be phases into the pockets of companies and taxpayers to create jobs and make improvements to our infrastructure. But what may not be fully understood is how this money is apportioned and to whose pockets these dollars will soon be lining.
When I first got downwind (or down screen) of this package I honestly thought that all $800 billion was going to be pumped into the construction industry. I think my biased and slightly self interested mind took the information being fed to me and spun it to my therapeutic advantage. It was nice while it lasted.
The reality is that the division of funds is very complicated and resembles a linear algebra problem that would have required some serious cheating if it was given to me in college (I squeaked by without cheating, thank you). But the majority of this funding will be in the form of tax relief to (I think) public organizations. At least this is what I gather from the Recovery website put out by the government. I ran across a link to another stimulus website, and after reading it, I had to sit down to take several deep breaths while my migraine subsided.
So after I popped five Advil and removed the I.V. from my arm, I think I've brilliantly ascertained that about $136 billion will be pumped like portland cement into a construction industry that has an unemployment rate over 18%. And while this certainly isn't chump change, it is only 17% of the package and I'm skeptical about how much it will help a $1 trillion industry.
I certainly don't want to rain on the parade or poop out on the party, but I'm just wondering if someone should have spiked the punch a bit. While, I'm sure some folks tried to pour a little vodka in the kool-aid, the compromise reached spreads money around the public sector like one would throw out feed to the hen house.
The construction work that is being funded is very specific to the highway, transit, and infrastructure industry. To get jobs in this particular field, you must have experience with DOTs, and publicly funded projects. There are very legitimate concerns out there that the commercial construction industry will not resurface until 2011 or (gulp) 2012.
However, this helps, and I'm happy for the folks with highway and transit experience who will be pouring concrete like there's no tomorrow. However, for those of us in the commercial world, tomorrow could be a long way away.
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