SC Floods Reveal A Need To Nationalize The Fed, Jumpstart American Infrastructure

image source: NPR

Brandon Turbeville
Era Of Wisdom
BrandonTurbeville.com
February 5, 2016

As the flood waters began to rise in South Carolina, so did the level of awareness that the vast majority of South Carolinians were wholly unprepared for such a disaster. But local governments also proved themselves to be unprepared, poorly prioritized, and inept and dealing with the destruction left by a historic amount of rainfall over the Palmetto state.

As the flood crisis got under way, South Carolina saw its major cities inundated with so much water that city centers were unnavigable without a boat, coastal areas saw houses collapse, and both city and rural areas saw roads wash out completely. With dams bursting and bridges washing away, local governments, citizens, and emergency management personnel clearly had their hands full. Most of them, to their credit, did their jobs well enough with the resources they had.

However, the floodwaters have raised an important issue for the state of South Carolina and for the rest of the country – infrastructure.

While the force of nature is capable of amazing and terrifying demonstrations of power that manmade structures often cannot withstand, the fact that much of South Carolina’s infrastructure crumbled so quickly is both a testament and a warning to the general public about just how weak America’s infrastructure has become.

While, admittedly, South Carolina saw a record amount of water during this recent crisis, significant portions of infrastructure showed signs of collapse early on with numerous highways simply washing away, bridges collapsing, and dams bursting.


In some cities, preparation was minimal, in some cases due to incompetence, in other cases because a lack of adequate resources. Duties such as simply cleaning storm drains, preparing water supply infrastructure, etc. were mostly left undone. Other areas such as road conditions and bridges have been so neglected and patched over for the last few decades that they simply could not hold up to the weather conditions.

Leaving any issues of incompetence aside as well as the severity of the weather, it is important to discuss how these types of infrastructure failures can be avoided in the future. Unfortunately, with an economy that is in the midst of a world-wide depression, the options available to local and state governments are somewhat restricted due to issues of funding.

At the federal level, budget cuts, austerity, and re-prioritization have taken hold so that America as a whole is nothing but a shell of its former self.

So what must be done?

We must immediately launch a program of infrastructure rebuilding to the highest standards, not merely “repairs” and patches. American highways (interstates, US highways, state highways, city streets, and county roads), must be rebuild to the standards of the German Autobahn and even better. Likewise, bridges must be built and strengthened so that there is no longer the danger of collapse in or after an adverse weather event.

Water treatment facilities and sewage facilities must be improved both in their facilities and their methods used in order to ensure that clean drinking water is available to all and that adverse weather events do not cause a cessation of the delivery of water and sewage treatment. Dams must be rebuilt in more effective ways and up to the standards of the 21st century.

Clearly, not all negative effects of storms can be prevented, but America can do better than what it has been doing.

Naturally, the question of “how are we going to pay for these updates?” arises shortly after any suggestion that we improve and modernize American infrastructure. The answer, of course, is to utilize the credit creating power of the Federal Reserve, either fully nationalized (the ideal) or partially so.

This national revitalization program can be easily accomplished by nationalizing the Federal Reserve and subsequently issuing the required amount of money through 0% interest credit to contracting companies or governments. If the Federal Reserve can cough up trillions of dollars of cheap credit for Wall Street, it can cough up an equal amount for the American people and their infrastructure.

Even better, a nationalized Federal Reserve can immediately begin to buy up state, local, and municipal bonds at 0% interest plus 100 year maturity requirements. This would provide the necessary financing to improve roadways, water treatment systems, sewage systems, and the like. It would allow the United States to improve its infrastructure while allowing these state and local governments to pay for the developments with no fear of financial foreclosure or indebtedness to a private banking cartel.

If the reader is interested in the ways that the Federal Reserve can be nationalized and used to generate a national recovery, please read my article Nationalize the Federal Reserve for details on this concept.

In the 21st Century, simple winter storms, wind gusts, rainstorms, and other seasonal events should not be capable of cutting off power, preventing travel, or causing such massive disturbance to such a large portion of the country for such a long period of time. Instead of increasing austerity, privatization, and cost cutting, it is time for America to reinvest in its own infrastructure, reject unfair trade deals, engage in healthy protectionism, and thus begin a national economic recovery.

image source: NPR

Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 andv olume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria,and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 650 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST atUCYTV. His website isBrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.