The way the ancient Egyptians built all those lovely temples so fast, was with a system that essentially combine brute force (they didn't have things like the wheel or pulleys to work with) and the "thousand monkeys" theory of production.

Each Egyptian, no matter his status, or regular job, spent one week a year working on the temples.

And I thought this would be an excellent adaptation to apply to FDR's notion of public works projects such as the WPA here in the U.S.

The difference being this, instead of merely being work for those who might be otherwise unemployed, this is work EVERYONE committed to doing, if they are 18 years or older, for one week a year. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Also, a living wage of $25 per hour is paid to the employee. For those of modest income, this may be a raise, for those of higher income, at a minimum, it won't be a burden on your overall income, and you get to do what amounts to charity work with substance, helping your nation become strong. Rich will have to work side-by-side with poor for at least one week a year, exposing each to the other, and reducing the stratification that has so corrupted our national life.

Personal expertise will be taken into account in assigning jobs on a particular work project, but if you have no needed skill already, you'll learn a new one on the job, with help from others, most likely a manual labor task that isn't "mission critical" like engineering.

Each month, a particular task will be targeted until completed to preassigned specs, like "rebuilding New Orleans electrical grid" or "removing debris from Houston", or "Minnesota bridge repairs".

5.8 million Americans (roughly) fanning out in each state, each week, to confront a single problem in their state? If all 300 million Americans become so completely focused, imagine the changes that could be implemented in a mere 52 weeks.

This place would get cleaned up so damned fast, it would astonish the world.

A National Service Week, that all Americans participate in, so that they have a real stake in this country.

Just a thought.

The real truth is that when Barack gets elected, THEN is when the real work will begin. And we're going to really have to pull together to get this country back on track again, because they've done a real number on the place trying to wreck everything.

So my attitutde is, all ideas are welcome, let's brain storm this bitch and get American moving again.

Anybody else got some ideas?

It is easy, build the stuff here, simple. Everyone pays a small amount in taxes, the companies pay taxes on profits, everyone all of a sudden is paying in to our infrastructure. As the debt of our country is paid off during the rest of this century, laws will be put in place to keep our government from spending us into oblivion once again.

During all of this emergency 51, the oil companies have been bleeding us dry, and they need tax help. Phil Graham needs to be dragged in front of Congress to explain the laws he put in place, and all the people that helped, put on the carpet as well. It is time to ferret out the weasels and make them pay.

One of the great misconceptions about the Egyptians is that they used slave labor, and that is wrong. They did use conscripts, but only minimally as they had to be returned to the owners in good health. No they had whole cities built around whatever project they were working on at the time. They only recently discovered these. As for the CCC, it was an awesome experiment, and it worked. In fact, around here we have CCC preserves, and you can still see the original campsites. They did so much, and helped feed many families. That is where we need to go, and we will when the depression hits again.

What about asking Americans to volunteer time in exchange for bringing down any debts?

People really can't afford to volunteer too much time right now, they are working 2-3 jobs to stay afloat, the only people who can, won't. Those ideas are cvery good, in a thriving economy, but not in a sluggish one. Vito the pimp said it best, "In a sluggish economy never ever fuck with another mans livleyhood." Obama is gonna have to be real creative to get us going again, but he what it takes, and so do his advisors.

My idea isn't about "volunteering".

This is a PAYING job. And a well-paying one.

5by5--I was responding to Starbuck, sorry for the confusion, it's faster for me to hit fast reply, I forgot to assign a named response. My bad, and you are right. Shit I'd sign up yesterday.

The misdirection and shell game being played by the politicians now days makes me ill. Here in Los Angeles I have seen first hand big business making bank off of state funded projects while working illegals. The average welder working a union job makes 30 plus benefits. The illegals got 12 bucks if they were lucky no benefits as I watched the vans pull up in front of the establishment to cash their checks. I was blown away. My signature was required to make their products legal. I got a first hand look at the very out in the open black market slave labor market. Don't teach them English and keep them ignorant, say anything against this practice and you are labeled a racist. These are good people just trying to survive undermining our way of life. Our politicians speak Spanish and everything is OK. This is not a race issue, it is a black market law breaking money laundering issue. So wakeup America.

No, my bad entirely.

Personally, I think if you're a patriot, you should be willing to volunteer for such a thing, but I'm very aware that most simply could not afford to do so.

I figure if we not only pay a living wage, but a healthy wage, people will be excited to participate, and people could even acquire new skills that they could then market on their resume to get even better regular jobs. Moreover, by getting paid for this work, it serves two purposes, it rebuilds critical services that make business work better, and it means people have money in their pockets to spend at those businesses or pay down debts.

I would like to know how many welds turned out to be sub par. It's common knowledge that the immigrants have no way to learn how to weld better, they just kinda weld good enough to help the Chevy make it across the border.

Well... not exactly. From my old Archaeology days in college:

1) The Egyptians of the Old Kingdom had a FAR FAR FAR SUPERIOR level of human organization than we do - they completely understood the principles of project management, true economics, and leadership

2) The Old Kingdom Egyptians were in many ways far more intelligent than we are - the bedrock on which the pyramids sit is free of faults and the underside of their foundations exactly match the curvature of the earth - yes the Egyptians knew the earth was spherical and approximately by how much

3) The Old Kingdom Egyptians did employ essentially day labor for component placement, but used highly skilled craftsmen and engineers to construct the parts of the monuments - we can see their signatures on the blocks used in the pyramids

Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom Egyptian civilization was different than the Old Kingdom.

They have to perform the task at hand.... period! There is a WPS to be followed, Welding Procedure Specification. They all have socials, and when I inquired about whether they were legal, they owner told me that some of these guys were on their third name. They are tested at the facility and licensed by the manufacturer. The manufacturer and my license are the responsible people if there is a failure, not the welder.

It would be excellent, in fact, I was (stupidly) expecting them to do something like that after Katrina.

Totally understand Adam. Perhaps poorly stated initially. Not trying to minimize the craftsmanship, just communicating that many hands at work can create great things.

I wish we'd really pick up on the European cathedral-building idea too. A workman on that knew he'd probably never see the end of the project, but he was working for a goal larger than himself, and got fulfillment from that.

I wish we'd apply that notion to the space program. Cathedral building in space. And the process of that exploration yields all sorts of technologies that are applied back on earth in a myriad of ways. Not to mention the fact that at least we'd be dinosaur-proofing the human species by moving some of our eggs out of the one basket.

My point is, there are so many things we could be doing nationally,and as a species, if we'd just drop the shit and stop fighting each other. The human and financial capital wasted on the defense industry just boggles the mind....

Man I wish I knew how to weld, I have so many great ideas. I'm gonna ask my neighbor to teach me, he's an electrician with a lot of experience, nuke plants and all. It can only help. I watch Junkyard Wars and they all know how, and I'm jealous.

The keys to welding are this..... One, you need to see the puddle, and the parts to be welded together. Two, proper fitup and heat input. Welding is a controlled flow of molten metal, you cannot just keep sticking the rod or blowing holes. Three, you must be able to see the differance between the flux and the molten metal, when you do this, you can paint the metal like an artist. It all comes down to control. Be smarter than the puddle.

Put your hood on and watch a pro, it is the best way to learn.

This is basically the rule with any craft, woodworking, construction, manufacturing, painting, welding, sculpting, etc.

Which is why an expert should be paired with a newbie in these programs, and then the skillset of the country instantly doubles.

Plus, it would restore that pride we once had in making THINGS.

I really don't think so. You made an excellent point, but sadly, we could never be as great as the Old Kingdom people. We seem to have lost something along the way, something that causes us to visualize an ego-less greatness outside ourselves.

Maybe the Old Kingdom was, in a way, the pinnacle of organized thinking. Maybe the Apollo program comes close to it.

I think this is the promise of the Age of Aquarius. I also believe the Old Kingdom Egyptians were closer to this state and regarded their culture and the environment as fundamental parts of the infrastructure.

One of the best things that a President Obama could do is to have a frank, fireside chat with the American people and level with them just how messed up things are right now and what it will take to get things back on track. Forget the tradition of not criticizing the out going president, call a spade a spade, and get the people to buy into putting back our country, whether it's paid, volunteer, for a tax credit whatever; during WWII people rationed fuel, butter, recycled, and pitched in, in a variety of ways to help the war effort, with the right leadership we can do it again.

Right on! Isn't this what FDR did? Would certainly reinforce my support of Barack if he did more stuff like FDR.

Frankly, I'd be happy if we had a country where it was still possible for the First Lady to invite random people in off the street for lunch in the White House kitchen, just like Eleanor Roosevelt did during the Depression. But the country's a much weirder place now.

Still, the overarching point of all that is that the President and the people had a much better CONVERSATION between them. He wasn't so isolated in the Beltway, with no notion of the hardships of average Americans.

Well said! Maybe the infrastructure we should be repairing is our own culture.