In the past week, Mother Nature has been
doing a pretty good job of scaring people. Not only was there an earthquake in Virginia, but even the
Bay Area had a couple of tiny jolts. I felt one of those little quakes while I
was sitting at my desk.
Now if the earthquake didn’t scare
people on the East coast, along comes Hurricane Irene. While the severity of
Irene could have been worse, news outlets are predicting billions of dollars in
damage. Vermont is one state that had more
damage than expected, including massive flooding.
There is
going to be a lot of clean up after the recent hurricane and the earthquake in Virginia. And it got me
thinking about the economy. It may seem strange to draw a line to connect the
two, but according to some trade associations, the way out of this economic
slump is investing in our infrastructure.
It’s frustrating
that as a country we wait until there is devastation before we fix our aging
infrastructure. There are roads, bridges and buildings that could all use
attention. For the HVAC and sheet metal trade, there are so many buildings that
could use an energy-efficiency upgrade.
I know that some
people weren’t thrilled with the Obama Administration’s stimulus package. Some
people said it was a waste of money and others said it didn’t go far enough.
I’m not into talking politics on my blog, but I’d say the stimulus didn’t go
far enough. Unfortunately, you need to spend money to make money, and I wish
that we could invest in our energy and building infrastructure. We would not
only make certain that our buildings and bridges are well protected in the
event of natural disasters, but it would put some people back to work and help
some HVAC and sheet metal companies feel like it is finally business as
usual.