Today’s AGC Smart Brief featured an article touting the benefits to the construction industry of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) more commonly known as stimulus spending. Significant money, whatever that is these days, has been spent on infrastructure improvements with more on the way. There is no doubt that parts of the construction industry have benefitted from this spending, but at some unknown cost to the rest of the economy.
A Wall Street Journal article mentioned later in the same brief takes a broader and more skeptical look at the same spending, mentioning the debate over how many jobs have really been created. The other problem with all of these claimed jobs saved is that the unemployment statistics have stubbornly refused to cooperate with the rosy projection and pronouncements of the White House and certain industry experts.
I would recommend reading Amity Schlae’s book, The Forgotten Man, to all who think that stimulus spending is really helping the overall economy. I am as anxious as anyone to see the construction industry recover from this devastating downturn, but doing so at the expense of the rest of the economy is bound to be ineffective in the long run.
David Prizio has over 35 years experience in the fields of general contracting, concrete subcontracting, and civil engineering. He functioned in the capacity of carpenter at Prizio & Prizio while attending college. After graduating from Cal Poly, Pomona in 1975, David Prizio began working as a project manager at the firm. He was responsible for design coordination, cost estimation, construction coordination and administration of commercial general contracting projects. He consulted with clients regarding design, marketing, and financing of building and construction projects.