47% of America is Empty
The world is at war. Innocent people are being killed around the world for a number of reasons.
What can WE do?
What can we do about the fighting? Nothing.
- What can we do to create space for people? We CAN do many things on this front.
- We can create opportunity for safety, growth, profitability and investment into America.
- We can create spaces to live with new technologies and even advance our opportunities to move to naturally unhospitable climates or regions.
Is it only a dream? NO.. We can really do it but we need to think it through, plan it out and take some immediate action as well.
Through the next series of posts, I am offering some thoughts and ideas to challenge our current way of thinking. What problems are we trying to solve? (Not every problem listed)
People flooding into the United States with no place to go, placing a strain on government across the whole country.
I’ll take the position that we are human beings and that borders, culture, religion, all matter BUT the most important thing that matters is that we are human and we have a responsibility to help our fellow humans!
People come to America because they believe what is in front of them in the US is much better than what they are currently dealing with or what they have had to deal with historically. We have historical precedence for this way of thinking as many people over the years had believed that Amercian streets were “paved with gold” and while this was factually inaccurate, America did afford many of our parents, grand and great opportunities they did NOT have in the “old country.”
My family came to the US between the mid 1800s and very early 1900s. They came for opportunity and as I think about what they had to do to get here, how bad must it have been for them to leave the land they knew for most of their lives?
I don’t think it is different today for the people seeking to come to the US.
What we have is an Amercian perception about our resources which is fundamentally wrong. The facts tell us that we have room for many more people and that if even a few of us work together, we can create a place for people to come, live and thrive. (If you want to think through this with me, let’s get going!)
Let’s get to some of the basics.
We need to know who is coming in but we also need to have a place for them to go. I believe we have a real opportunity here to do something historically different and relevant. Let’s start with some basics.
- Place to Live
- Food and Water
- Shelter
- Medical
- Clothing
A Place to Live
There are two basic answers to the question of a place to live.
- Empty space in cities, towns and regions.
- Empty space in large less hospitable areas of the US.
To examine the first, we can take note that many large US cities have areas with existing infrastructure (may require some update / upgrade) with empty or unused space. There are many different types of unused or empty space available.
- Commercial properties.
- Commercial office space. Example: Average 15% of Atlanta, LA, Denver, Phoenix, Chicago is empty office space. ~
- Old apartments.
- Empty housing / houses. (non commercial)
In 2020 it was estimated the US government alone had nearly 45000 half empty buildings. Let’s keep it moving.
In my last post, I mentioned that our US government spent TRILLIONS (WITH A T) dollars on funding war(S). What if.. we took some of this money and created a program to reconstruct, repair and revive these buildings? We could refit some of the old buildings with new modern water recapture and solar technologies. We could create whole new markets for business to build and grow. (PROFIT // GROWTH // BETTER LIVING AND WEALTH)
Want to hear something pretty cool? Elon Musk has a brother, he is pretty smart in his own right. He isn’t on the radar in the same way as his bro Elon but he is doing something(s) to make a difference in the world. In 2016, he started a company called Square Roots (squarerootsgrow.com) <– vertical farming in old container ship containers. He is also doing other things with vertical farming.. read on..
You see, once the containers have been used a few times, they can’t be used to ship goods any longer. Kimbal Musk uses these containers to create vertical aeroponic farms.
Investment in the use of existing building and land. (Good for cities and towns)
Investment in the reuse of equipment which is no longer used. (Good for the earth)
Investment in the latest solar technologies. (Good for all of us)
Investment in updating and upgrading the infrastructure to support and sustain people. (Good for the people in need)
I get yelled at for too many LONG POSTS, so.. I’ll keep it down here to a min.. and we will pick up next post… but first.. a FEW MORE THOUGHTS >>> Ma would be proud of this one..
The Liberty Program
The Liberty Program will create regional processing centers for both incoming and undocumented people. The program will have multiple options / (tracks) which work in the same way as the most effective DMV’s.
For people just entering the US, they would be identified, processed, and provided with a form of identification which simply allows the Federal government to account for them. Once processed they would need to work with their regional and local center to register further.
If a people are already in the US and they have a place to live, they would be able to do some preprocessing work online or mobile device. They would get validated and affirmed through a processing center. This does NOT mean citizenship.
IF YOU CAN GET FREE COME TO ME>> Regional Ellis Centers (the Newmericka Ellis Island)
Think Regional, Act Local
The Liberty program would seek to infuse grant monies and Federal reallocated dollars towards a focus on basic human needs in regions, cities and local towns or areas who would volunteer for infusion. The program would make every aspect of the work as small and managable as possible but it would use systems and capabilities already established by the US government. For example, when Detroit would setup their Ellis Center, they would also setup areas for medium term housing where the US government would invest the monies to FEMA. FEMA would enhance it’s ability for short and medium term emergency housing, create tiny houses, work with localities and existing RV companies or innovation companies to create packages to deliver based on the needs of the locality.
As the population increases in the region and the areas is enhanced through reconstruction, and rebuild, people would transition to their new housing and FEMA would reclaim the tiny homes for use in either new areas or emergency situations. All the materials and housing would be constructed using reusable technologies and building materials. In some cases, “slurry housing” could be constructed using 3D printing technology. One the buildings are no longer required, they could be taken down or repurposed as needed.
Local medical centers for urgent care would be established with regional hospitals and commercial hospitals receiving grant monies to expand. These organizations could work with the Department of Veterans affairs in partnership to leverage “lessons learned” and even use older NON used buildings or equipment to get started. The funding to the VA Healthcare could enhance the Amercian veterans experience, get the VA the newest equipment and everyone could benefit from the VA lessons they’ve learning in caring for a variety of populations. The VA would NOT manage these services but they would work as a partner to the Liberty Program. Americans would benefit first from infused monies BUT all would gain access to healthcare and benefits. Doctors coming in from out of country would also get fast tracked licensure for treatment of the Newmerickan population. They could apply and work towards citizenship and licensing as part of this process.
What about waste?
What about water?
What about traffic?
Touching upon water .. we can create water from atmospheric water generators (See Moses West)
Managing Waste in Large Communities
What about Traffic?
Traffic can be handled in multiple ways but fundamentally, we need think and act locally. With vertical farming, city planning and opportunistic use of new technologies and or biking, walking or people powered vehicles, generally MOST people could travel around less frequently. They could live, work and play in local areas which would keep traffic down.
Ok.. Nuff said for today.. Next time, I’ll start touching on how to recapture downstream dollars. Not only are we generating new streams of revenue in multi-billions, we are creating new opportunities through flat tax to have everyone share in paying taxes based on CONSUMPTION. It’s been thought of.. not by me.. we will get to it..
Whether you like the ideas or not, I’d challenge YOU to think about. If you know someone who is interested in this, lets get some conversations going, you never know what great things can happen!!!!