Thought #1
There is a heart wrenching story on the front page of the Sunday SF Chronicle written by Jill Tucker about Homelessness. I read the first few paragraphs and thought, “well I could literally fund that family of four’s housing needs”. But, how does one do that? What are the unintended consequences? Why this family and not the (probably) hundreds or thousands of others? How long do you do fund that?
Which got me to thinking. The SF Chronicle should host a Kiva or Kickstarter like site for homeless families. Put the pictures of the families up there and have them tell their stories. Let people go to the site and pick a family (families) that they want to support. The Chronicle could put some constraints on the site so that people don’t abuse the system, but I would focus more on the immediate benefit.
Thought #2
Scrap the huge pipeline from Canada to Houston carrying crappy oil to be refined. BUT, if a pipeline from Canada to a Southern state is to be built, then build a 2,000 mile pipeline carrying fresh Canadian water to Texas, Arizona or New Mexico. Those states would trip over themselves to have a dedicated supply like that.
Wouldn’t it create the same amount of jobs? Wouldn’t it help the tremendous water problems those states have? Plus, a leak of water is easily dealt with and has no economic damage.
Water is more valuable than many commodities already and it will only grow in importance as water shortages coupled with insane development policies in the desert states continues.
Phil Black 