Why not more infrastructure?

We're into the second decade of the 21st century, and a new paradigm is fighting to emerge - one where unemployment is chronically high, or the definition of "full employment" rises to the 8-9% range that we have today.

Does it have to be this way?

In decades past, the federal government played a significant role in the building of the nation's infrastructure - the roads, bridges, rails, electric transmission networks, waterworks and related stuff that helped secure the USA as the superpower of the world. In the 1960s, as much as a third of the federal budget went to infrastructure. You're familiar with one of the most notable federal infrastructure projects: The Interstate Highway System. Imagine where our country would be if we still attempted interstate commerce on the two-lane, narrow blacktops of the 1930s and 1940s.

For lots of reasons, infrastructure has become politically passe. And yet, nothing short of a massive new infrastructure project will bring unemployment down to levels we still consider "normal." The private sector? It's hoarding cash, and in any case, no single business or group of businesses has the clout to build the way the federal government can - and should.

Here's one idea: For many years an "Interstate 66" project has been bandied about by road enthusiasts. There is an existing I-66, starting in DC and ending in western Virginia, but this idea envisions a coast-to-coast I-66, evoking memories of the Route 66 of lore.

This idealistic I-66 would be a minimum of three lanes in each direction the whole way. It would be designed from the ground up for the massive, high-capacity trucking industry and would be built for a 100-year lifespan using modern construction techniques. It might possibly be a truck-only freeway spanning the continent, especially if a high-speed rail line was laid down the center of the right of way. In any case, such a Mother Road would also serve currently economically disadvantaged areas like southern Kentucky, southern Missouri, southern Kansas, and southern Colorado.

The cost of something like this? Heck, I don't know. It's quite possibly a trillion-dollar project. But something like this would inspire a nation - and put thousands of unemployed Americans back to work. It's useful to note that a large majority of the current 9% unemployed are in that state because they've lost construction jobs. More than just a new bridge or interchange here or there, a new I-66 megaproject would jumpstart the economy on a number of fronts, in ways even bigger than the WPA and CCC projects of the Depression era.

Likely this will remain a theoretical exercise similar to my grand scheme to reduce time zones throughout the US. But these kinds of ideas can get people thinking. And the more I see us wallow through the Great Recession, the more I believe that it will take grand ideas far beyond what our leaders have mentioned so far to prevent a "new normal" from infecting our country.