Mr. Obama has succeeded in being elected in the US, his single greatest rallying cry was "change".
The change you so ferverently hope for will have nothing to do with removing politicians from the trough or bringing about honesty in government and wishing won't make it so. The "change" will involve a depression economy, depression "attitudes", the equivalent of the "new deal", infill of urban areas, kids with families living with their parents, the loss of mobility (due to lack of fuel and the slapping of toll booths on previously "free" highways), the corrosion of housing prices, stock options and the US dollar. The costs of attending university will be out of reach to even more people, and the loss of jobs will produce a {hopefully temporary} welfare state. Y'all will be darned lucky to avoid a police state.
In my wildest dreams I don't forsee a golden age. Gosh knows I would love to be optomistic, but I don't see any new railways being laid down, or the electrification of existing railways. I don't see any widespread regulations being made to require new housing to be superinsulated, or even to be situated on the lot to take advantage of the sun! (Not that there is any new housing going on anyway.) I see big talk about improving the "infrastructure" as if anybody will be able to drive on it, but nothing about improving public transit.
Oh well....we got our own problems in Canada...in fact Canadian politics is getting quite fascinating. Nobody seems concerned that three quarters of the business in Canada are owned by US businesses which are facing receivership. Not the least of which is the foreign owned GM which is asking the Canadian Government for a BIG handout, and not to be outdone, the totally foreign owned forestry industry is demanding the same.
Yet, I am not gloomy, really. There are unprecedented opportunities coming down the road if we only reach out to take advantage of them. The internet is not just about porn nowadays, its about learning and education. Increasingly, the doctorates you get from colleges are becoming irrelevant. The auto companies may be forced to create autos that people can actually buy, and maybe they can re-tool some of their assembly lines to create electric tramways. They don't have to be "steam punk" trams, but that would be nice....grin!
Well, you wanted change. I DO hope you like it. You will never go back to the days of happy motoring and hour long single occupant commutes, jobs that will pay enough to send your kids to university AND pay off the house. It'll be change to a lifestyle our parents would recognize from the dirty thirties when they built houses from rammed earth, churches all had huge soup kitchens attached to them, and families wouldn't see dad for months at a time because he was working at a job in another city.
