From electricity to water, to internet and phone bills, the costs of services have been on the rise. Family budget costs have rose almost fifty percent in six years! This is wreaking havoc on most of the citizens of Des Moines. We should be looking for innovative ways to improve the quality of life for all of our residents and part of that includes sound spending, sound money, and reducing the tax burden so that people can save or spend more on things that really matter to them.
Even at a brief glance I see ways that we can save money while beautifying our city and supporting our pollinators, while protecting our citizens from unsafe or ill-repaired infrastructure, and through recycling of the near future we could have the single largest positive impact for us and for our planet! It is now obvious that focusing on harm reduction, mental health and addiction rehabilitation, and on ending of prohibition of medicinal plants and fungi will create an increased income for the city in a bevy of ways. Beyond all this I see a future where we can save our taxpayers a lot of money while producing energy, and quality potable water, with our garbage and recycling!
People often ask me what I would like to see for our country. I would like to see us utilize our constitutions and bill of rights for all our people. I would like to see us truly operate as a republic for all the people by all the people for the first time in our history. People from all over the political spectrum would like to find ways that we can better live in harmony with our neighbors, our pollinators, and our planet. Here is my vision for the not so distant future for one of the finest cities in the republic.
Picture if you will a city with safe and accurate metering of its energy use. A city whose local government pays attention to technological innovation rather than letting a federal agency tell us what is safe or unsafe for our citizens. I see a city soon that has public transportation running on hydrogen fuel cells. Soon a city that has electricity coming from fusion power. That is 100% clean, cheap, virtually limitless, virtually waste-free, energy. After sitting through hours of Des Moines professionals talking about garbage and recycling, I was shocked to learn that there is no competition in recycling currently.
We are on the brink of garbage technology that can process 1000 tons of MSW (municipal solid waste) per day. It costs 3 million US per unit, fits in an 18-wheeler-sized truck body, has zero emissions, and pays for itself within 3 years. It can be tooled to process car tires, animal waste, ocean plastic, essentially all non-hazardous waste that Des Moines creates. The result from processing old car tires is literally usable energy and potable water. This technology also makes it possible to build completely self-sustaining communities. At maximum efficiency, Des Moines could have ZERO net garbage output. Our garbage and recycling crisis could be gone in a year. Plant owners would start COMPETING for who gets the trash… because it saves them a fortune in fuel costs once the machines are paid off, and it’s free! Instead of paying for trash pickup, you’ll have companies fighting over who can pay you the most to take it off your hands. You may think that this is far-off, but I assure you that it is not. As you read this in Sweden, trash Heats Homes, powers buses and fuels taxi fleets. Sweden has become so efficient at this that it has nearly reached ‘zero waste’ levels and imports at least two million tons of rubbish from other European countries.
Problems have solutions. Predicaments have outcomes. What is happening in Des Moines is not a problem; it's a predicament. What I see is simply unproductive budgeting and improper use of taxpayer money. I see multiple long-term career politician incumbents that are set in past ways of thinking about city governance. I call for a different model of growth and development. With very small amounts of capital we can get neighbors together and help them realize their shared vision. One hard truth that we need to face is that our city is never going to be able to subsidize enough businesses to create jobs or economic prosperity for everyone. It is through policies regarding items like transitional housing, skill development, and restorative justice we can future-ready our workforce for the work that Des Moines citizens will be doing for the next century. Let's drive Des Moines into the 21st Century and beyond.