For those of us who travel to and from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the long-awaited opening of the Second Avenue Subway on January 1 of 2017 was a highly-anticipated event. The Second Avenue Subway has a long and torturous past with a long history of disappointments and false promises with several starts and stops regarding various aspects of this project dating back several decades.
The Second Avenue Subway is to be built in four phases. What opened this year technically is only the completion of phase one of this massive project at a cost $4.5 Billion and included three new stations and a major renovation of a fourth. Work on the line restarted in 2007 and the construction of it over the years was a major disruptive force in the neighborhood. While most construction proceeded deep underground, the streets, businesses and residents along the path were deeply impacted by this project.
However, for many of us that use the new line regularly to commute it has been a major enhancement to our lives. The new station I use did take an extraordinary long time to complete, however, I appreciate that it is an engineering marvel and provides a very appealing and first class and somewhat high tech environment as compared to the older subway stations in the system.
Unfinished Business
Some sidewalk and road work around the neighborhood remains to be completed nearing eight months after the subway opened at the beginning of the year. I enter and exit the subway via the same entrance twice daily and pass what seemingly amounts to a small stretch of an incomplete sidewalk and accompanying street work encompassing less than one third of a city block which includes a whole host of construction material, supplies and equipment that can be found in this unfinished section. Every day I wonder why there is so little progress evident given that there are so many workers at the site and it seems to be such a minor project.
New Apple iPhone models on the way this fall
The 10th anniversary of the iPhone is coming this fall and several new iPhones including a totally redesigned iPhone 10 is expected to be announced. There is much speculation regarding its exact specifications. We can expect it to feature a sweeping redesign with a host of leading edge technology incorporated into its design. The plans are ambitious and the timeframe is compact for this new introduction, however; you can be extremely confident that a “great” new iPhone will be announced very close to schedule and be at minimum very impressive.
Government takes seven months and counting to complete a low-tech project of paving a street and laying down concrete for a sidewalk using technology available in the 19th century and Apple in roughly the same time frame can produce a device that will be a difference maker in peoples’ lives on a world-wide basis and high-tech marvel leading the way further into the 21st century.
America’s Unfinished Business
The American Dream Machine has been made possible by the existence of our free enterprise system. Throughout our history, entrepreneurs help create through their talents, hard work, imagination and innovative ways a society with the greatest standard of living in history. Millions of businesses such as Apple are working every day to invent our future.
America’s dynamism is enabled by our economic prowess. Our traditional economic strength was made possible by the exercise of individual freedom in a predominantly free market by a highly skilled and educated population. The major challenge that needs to be addressed today by America is how to best accelerate the pace of economic growth from the currently modest and unacceptable 2.0% to 3.0% or greater.
President Trump’s election success can be primarily attributed to him being able to communicate the benefits to the American people of a moving the pendulum back from an increasingly European Social Democracy style economy envisioned and implemented by Obama and continued to be supported by leaders of the Democratic Party including Hillary Clinton and free it from the restraints of an endlessly growing government.
Private Enterprise and free markets
Traditional American Capitalism based on the fundamental principles of the Free Market and Private Enterprise has always been responsible for creating the great wealth of our country. Increased prosperity by the American people will provide a better platform for solving societal problems as opposed to depending on even more unaffordable and ineffective Government programs. I’m a daily witness to the fact that Government fails even with the simple task of fixing a street and sidewalk on a timely basis and cost effective basis.
Abundantly clear is that policies that enhance the capitalist capabilities of our country enables economic growth. On the other hand, redistributive policies and the continual impulse to grow the role of Government on all levels in economic affairs such those increasingly supported by the Democratic Party and the Left inhibit it.
The Trump economic agenda of tax and healthcare reform, a sensible immigration policy that protects our borders and promotes economic growth and the lowering of the regulatory burden of government plus the promotion of American economic interests first rather than global interests are keys to prospects of increasing our country’s level of prosperity. It is critical to the future of our country that President Trump succeed in these efforts of limiting the role of government in our lives even in the face of unprecedented opposition from entrenched establishment types and the Left leaning main stream media.
Who can we count on?
What will occur first; having a new iPhone or a finished city street? Currently, I believe the answer is obvious. Chances today are greatly on the side that I will be able to take a photo with the new technologically advanced camera on my new iPhone of the yet to be finished street. The point in time when the answer to this question is a toss-up means that Trump has succeeded and government is more effective and efficient and has taken on much more limited role in all our lives and increased prosperity driven by a vibrant private sector is the order of the day.
The RightQuestions 