Suggestion to Obama campaign about the IITS Initiative

New York City, September 19, 2008

Dear Senator Obama and economic advisors:

I think your tax policies are correct, both fiscally and ethically. Only those making over $250k can bear substantial tax increases which would offset no tax increases for low- and middle-income citizens, the majority of 95% of the population. They are ethically correct, because, finally, equity is used as the guiding principle rather than growth at all costs.

One important ingredient to have the US (and global) economy working again is enormous investment in infrastructure which would bolster employment and increase purchasing power. It is the latter that makes an economy hum. Presently, as is pointed out by Henry Kaufman, a Wall Street economist, in today’s New York Times, there are not many alternatives that can replace consumer spending. He “ticks off the alternatives and discounts them. Exports could carry some of the load, but the surge in the first half of the year is fading as European and Asian economies weaken. Here at home, capital spending by business on new buildings and equipment could provide a lift, but that, too, is beginning to fade as corporate profits — and demand — weaken. Just Wednesday, FedEx announced that profits had shrunk in the latest quarter as freight traffic declined. Home construction is off the table, of course, as a means of lifting the economy. That leaves government, which could inject money into the economy through aid to the states or infrastructure spending or another round of tax rebates.”
It is to this infrastructure spending that I want to alert you to the IITS Initiative which stands for an Integrated Intermodal Transportation System. It consists of $300 billion 15 year program to fully integrate air and surface transportation. It would drastically reduce short-haul air traffic of passengers and cargo and make the remaining aviation services connect with upgraded surface modes of transportation. Freight would mostly use trains and passenger travel would mostly use a modern coach system for short and medium distances. For more information, see www.suscom.com


Yours for sustaining futures and a sustainable, equitable and accountable aviation industry


Frans C. Verhagen, M.Div., M.I.A., Ph.D., sustainability sociologist,
Adjunct Associate Professor of Sustainable Aviation at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology (formerly the College of Aeronautics at La Guardia Airport), www.vaughn.edu
President, Citizens Aviation Watch USA, Inc, www.us-caw.org; President, SAFE, Inc., www.metronyaviation.org
Principal, SAVIA Associates International. www.susaviation.com
Sustainability Fellow at the Green Institute, Washington, D.C., www.greeninstitute.net
Director, Sustainability Research and EducationEarth and Peace Education Associates International (EPE)97-37 63rd Road, #15E, Rego Park, NY 11374, USAvoice: 1+(718)275-3932; cell: 917-617-6217; fax 1+(718)275-3932http://www.globalepe.org, gaia1@rcn.com

“…..the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else? Why? And how may we do so?"
Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001: p.64