If you had $50 million dollars to spend to create jobs in your city or county

[XemaSab]

how would you spend it? :shrug:

[NMDemDist2]

1. start an algae farm

brackish water and sunlight are here in abundance, so why not?

[Javaman]

12. I like your idea the best out of the others.

provides jobs for a clean tech with multi use output. Jobs for life.

[Lint Head]

2. I would hire newly graduated local law students to sue the Bush administration

for committing crimes in my name with my tax money!
:dem:

[aquart]

5. Thereby providing work for Xerox repairmen, office supply store clerks....

The list goes on.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. infrastructure. roads, buildings, bridges. Dismantle foreclosure ghost towns. make 'em into parks

[XemaSab]

21. Redding is using the money to build a freeway interchange

:banghead:

[BlueJazz]

4. Solar power research (Florida)

[MrSlayer]

6. Build a casino.

Jobs for construction as it goes up, jobs for people after it opens and I make a nice profit which will eventually allow me to expand and hire more people.

[sandnsea]

10. Casinos destroy towns

People who used to visit businesses in the town only spend money at the casino. If it has a hotel and restaurants, those businesses suffer too. It attracts just enough problem gamblers to increase crime. The workers don't generally make enough to buy homes and pay property taxes. They're almost always done wrong, so they almost always destroy towns.

[MrSlayer]

15. I would pay my workers a living wage.

I'll be making money hand over fist so my dealers, bartenders, cocktail waitresses, maintenance people and security would make out on a level that would reflect that. We're talking a mere $50 million here so the local hotels and restaurants would make out fine because I'd not have enough initial money to build those to go along with my gaming floor. I would do it right and the town would prosper.

[hootinholler]

7. I would open a low voltage LED lighting factory

In addition to LED lamps, we would sell circuit isolation kits for lighting circuits which convert them to low voltage dc and incorporate a decorative micro generation unit.

Damn, could I do that fr $50M?

I'd sure love to try.

-Hoot

[jmowreader]

22. You could probably do that for $5 million, if you buy the LEDs and passive components

I don't know what an LED-making machine costs, but they aren't cheap. If you bought the LEDs from a semiconductor company, it would cost you much less.

Now, what are you going to do with the other $45 million?

[hootinholler]

26. Bonuses.

Split share and share alike with all employees. ;)

-Hoot

[jmowreader]

28. I have a better idea...

Instead of building ONE huge plant to make these for the whole US, build 10 regional plants.

[sandnsea]

8. First, create a business incubator

And second, put that money into micro-loans and help people identify needs in the community and fit their talents and interests to those needs.

[Honeycombe8]

9. I don't know. That would require a lot of information and research.

But I would probably know a silly expenditure if I heard it.

[krispos42]

11. 3-year project to make every house in my county green.

There are about 12,000 of them, so that's an average of 40,000 worth of improvements.

Photovoltaic roof arrays, domestic wind turbines, solar water heaters. Removal of gas-fired water heaters and furnaces, to be replaced with electric ones. Maybe even some kind of battery array for storing elecricity during periods of high generation. And attic insulation.

Hire maybe 50 work crews of perhaps 10 guys each. That's 500 families with a good, steady job. They'd have to average about 10 houses a day, so that's maybe 4 days per house per crew.

I think that's doable. One electrician and the rest carpenters and laborers and such.



Of course there'd have to be some way to keep people from stealing them and running off.

[earth mom]

25. That should be a mandate for every city & county in this country.

:thumbsup:

[flvegan]

13. Can I build a NASCAR track with $50 million?

[jmowreader]

23. Not if you want grandstands

[SmileyRose]

32. That doesn't begin to be enough to bribe the France family

NASCAR track owners have to pay to play. Ask the former owners of Rockingham.

[The Straight Story]

14. Would use it to help local businesses/govt go green:

Which would help them reduce costs and save money so they could afford more workers.

Would give preferential hiring to local contractors/companies to do the work (to keep the money local, as well as taxes).

Those helped by the money by reducing their energy bills I would offer tax breaks, further saving them money - if they increased their staff.

ALSO - would spend part of it on helping to offset local businesses advertising in other areas (so that they could ship their products to more places and make more money).

I am sure there are many more ways to help (and I think I would spend a lot of my own time looking at the best ways, meeting with local businesses and govt officials, these just jumped to mind and may not be best).

[IDemo]

16. Purchase land and equipment for urban farms/gardens

Something I feel will soon be central to supplying food to urban and suburban areas.

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/food/2009/04/09/2009-04-09_new_york_city_farms_and_community_gardens_gear_up_for_spring_with_increased_inte.html

[csziggy]

17. Before thinking about it I looked at the projects already on the list for the stimulus money

Our city is getting less than $120 million. Out of that, they are spending less than $12 million replacing worn out buses - another $50 million might make that bus system really useful instead of barely adequate.

That would provide better mass transportation, employee some bus drivers, allow more people to get to jobs without having to own cars, and help our city cut traffic infrastructure costs - a lot of the rest of the stimulus money is going to resurface roads and prepare for new roads.

[TahitiNut]

18. Buy up residences, hire skilled workers to renovate, offer low-cost rental to single-parent families

... and sell properties at low margin above cost ... rinse, repeat. It'd create jobs, provide housing (even to the homeless), and preserve neighborhoods. I'd try to focus on preserving and improving neighborhoods including local parks, commercial properties, and infrastructure. I'd want to hire people in trainee and apprentice positions as well, in the skilled construction/renovation trades and hopefully 'marry' the enterprise with Habitat for Humanity to cover a spectrum of needs.

It'd (hopefully) be a balanced approach that nurtures small family businesses, trades, recreation, etc. I'd want it to be low-profit or non-profit, recycling revenues back into more properties and so on. I wouldn't want the number of rental properties to increase beyond some small portion ... since the objective would NOT be to become some landlord business ... just a business that could be self-propelled from block to block and neighborhood to neighborhood, creating homes and jobs both.

[SoCalDem]

19. First off, I would lease several of the empty "big box" facilities

and convert them into satellite community college locations.

then I would hire people to staff them.

then I would offer tuition assistance for people needing to/wanting to "go back to school"..

I would offer free tuition for people wanting to go into the math, science fields... free if they maintain at least a B average.

I would also buy up foreclosed homes and turn them into low-income housing.. (there's a 5 year wait around here)

[Oldenuff]

36. Another profit making idea would be..

SoCalDem said:

I would also buy up foreclosed homes and turn them into low-income housing..

Then turn them into Growhouses....there is good profit to be made,and it would circumvent a lot of that violence with the Mexican Drug Cartels.....




Ok...let me get my flame resistant duds on here...


:)

[JVS]

20. I'd build and ammunition factory.

I hear they can't even keep the shelves stocked with it anymore. Good money to be made.

[jmowreader]

24. I would make cheap plastic crap

Right now, the United States is almost completely dependent on China for its supply of cheap plastic crap (CPC) like kitchen gadgets. Fayettenam has an abandoned Black & Decker factory that could easily be converted into a plant in which to make CPC. We have a DAK Americas PET plastic plant that makes food-grade polyester--the perfect material to make cheap plastic crap from, especially if it was glass fiber reinforced. We are on the East Coast's major north-south trade route. My CPC plant could guarantee delivery to anywhere in the US within 5 days, unlike Chinese CPC plants that need two to four weeks.

[RedRocco]

27. I would start a company to make light electric vehicles

using off the shelf components. automotive dry cells and mountain bike parts.

[groundloop]

29. Trickle Down Economics, the GOP way....

First off, I hear the boat building industry is slow right now. I'll order myself a high speed yacht, a ski boat, and a bass boat. That ought to keep a few folks employed for a couple of weeks.

Second, the construction industry is hurting, so I'm having a new house and a couple of vacation cabins built.

Finally, the service sector and entertainment indurstries are down also, so I'm hiring some good blues bands and throwing a hell of a house warming party for my new home.


:sarcasm:

[defendandprotect]

30. Plant hemp . . .

[Seldona]

31. Digesters at every farm over a marketable size.

Retrofit the local Ethanol plant to make bio diesel out of organic material not in the food supply. Town-wide fiber broadband freely available to business that wants to move in, and sold to every citizen at cost. The rest can go for solar and wind. I would like to try to create the first energy self-sustaining county if I could, then run for mayor.

*Edited to add just kidding about the last part. heh

[madeline_con]

33. Education. They're talking budget cuts, and closing schools, in Brevard County, FL.

One of the schools slated for possible closing does a tremendous job with elementary kids with disabilities; therapy pool and lots of hard work by dedicated, loving people. The staff has a lot of people who have been there close to 20 years, who are still smiling and have open arms and hearts for the students.

Because of the low teacher student ratio, some pundits think it's a place where "fat" can be cut. I'm thinking maybe the huge bureaucracy could use a trim.

[SmileyRose]

34. I'd spend every cent on attracting richer people to my county.

over 60% of the people in my county are at or near the poverty level mainly because the rich people wanted the land where slums were and Centennial Park now is in Atlanta. They tore down the shitty projects (very good thing) put those folks on section 8 to be mixed amongst the rest of society in regular housing (another good thing) but my county neglected to specify the maximum number of section 8 units available in a given apartment complex or subdivision. So it was open season, the poor got concentrated in a new place - out of sight out of mind - and the upper middle and rich folks don't have to worry their beautiful minds about simply moving a set of problems to a different place.

And then they all sit around and make fun of my part of Atlanta.


So I would use the money to attract rich white people to my county. They need some skin in the game here before any decent jobs are going to show up in my neck of the woods.

[1]

35. i would employ everyone in my town...

some would fan me with giant palm branches. others would peel grapes and feed them to me.

the former leaders of our community would follow me about, dressed in burlap sacks and pointy shoes, constantly affirming "you are right! 1. you are so right!"

all would be employed. and i would be merciful. and unassuming. and they would love me.

it is good to have $50 million dollars to spend to create jobs in my city or county...

:)

[tuckessee]

37. I'd use about 50% of it for ........

...channelling to businesses and firms run by powerful politicians (local or above) and to front corporations set up by my friends & relatives .

I'd expect at least five mil kicked back to me from the above in the form of cash as well as a whole host of other gratuities.

I'd use about 30% for showy, feel-good, high publicity projects which would serve as a smokescreen for my graft.

These emotionally distracting projects would be recommended by the well-heeled, slick public relations, research and lobbying firm I would use the remaining 20% to hire.

:evilgrin: