Falling somewhere in between Thomas Friedman and Fred Wilson, I'd say that two of the best places to spend the stimulus money are in higher education and increasing SBA loans.
Silicon Valley is in part a product of the massive investment that California made in higher education during the 50s and 60s. The UC system became the premiere educational system in the world and companies knew that they had a highly educated work force and executives knew they'd have great schools for their kids. We've fallen way down from that standard.
Also, SBA loans can be very cumbersome to obtain. I previously worked as employee number 4 at a company that grew to about 35 people before being sold last year. We did get a small SBA loan at one point, but it took a ton of paperwork and months of delay. We were a profitable company all along and if we could have obtained a larger loan in a shorter period, we could have created even more jobs.
These are two areas where even more of the dollars need to go- as a taxpayer, they are my best hope of seeing an ROI.
We need to see more of this.
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