Jean's Blog

THE DIFFERENCE

Good News, #1 – #2

Posted by Jean

Where is the good in this economy?  When are you going to have something good to say?  These are the sorts of questions I’ve been hearing for the past few months.  And so, I’ve decided, when I see good things I’m going to simply report them here.  When the good outweighs the bad — which I fully expect to take a while — we’ll know that we’re turning the corner.

1. Community college enrollment is way up.  As I write in my new book The Difference: How Anyone Can Thrive In Even The Toughest Times, one of the keys to thriving is a college education.  In his column in today’s New York Times David Leonhardt argues that “nothing would benefit tomorrow’s economy more than a …. surge [in college grads].”

2. The stimulus dollars are moving and will create 150,000 jobs building roads, repairing bridges and other highway projects alone, and some 400,000 in total if estimates hold up.  Those people will start to be able to pay their bills.  They will be able to stay in their homes.  And some of that money will quickly make it back into the economy.

More to come…