Finding Our Way: Future of Long Islands Economy - Essay Example

Finding Our Way Summary Future of Long Island’s economy is dependent on transportation, taxes, poverty, education, environmental preservation, and immigration. These factors are interrelated and play an integral part in the growth of the economy. There are various challenges facing the factors determining economic growth rate. For instance, there is a problem between the expansion of roads and transportation systems and the need to protect the environment which is also an important economic aspect. However, this can be solved by the proposed Brentwood intermodal transportation where products will be transported to a central position by rail and small trucks redistribute them.

This proposal will largely reduce environmental pollution. Preserving land for environmental reasons may result in fewer housing issues but when the government sets a price floor then the land’s price may hike and further make housing less affordable. As a result, the article proposes that high-density housing should be encouraged to benefit builders but this idea may not be received well by the communities opposed to the higher-density development. Education is another vital aspect of economic growth.

Although quality education is considered important, less attention is paid to altering the financial system of education. The author suggests that the issue of education may be solved by the government taking a larger portion of education costs to encourage property tax saving. The No Child Left Behind school scorecard should continue with its intended purpose of evaluating individual improvement. The program has failed to address challenges facing children living in poverty such as the inability to learn from home because of frequent sickness and hunger.

Part of the money used in this program may be used to boost the education of students living in poverty. Educated immigrants may be very useful in providing a workforce that may stir the economy.BTransportation is an important aspect of resource distribution and should therefore be evenly distributed. But because of the inability to expand it imposed by factors such as financial constraints developing a centralized transportation location may be very useful in ensuring the proper distribution of resources. Environmental pollution may hinder economic growth but since there should be economic activities going on regardless of environmental challenges, few of the activities such as housing and transportation may be allowed to ensure minimal pollution of the environment.

Education is another significant factor that can catapult economic growth but because it is a scarce resource, the government should mostly concentrate on educating children living in poverty because the rich can afford their children’s education. In fact, due to the scarcity of educated individuals, educated immigrants may just feel the gap and produce quality.CI agrees with Cantor’s recommendation on how to solve the education challenges amongst the students living in poverty. This may help in improving the quality of education amongst the students since the rich and the middle class have the resources of ensuring quality education.

The issue of environmental issues seems to dominate almost every area of economic development. However, at times it may be necessary to assume or just have a minimal effect so that the economy of a region can be boosted. I agree with Cantor’s recommendation of building more houses but disagree with the idea of developing a central position for transportation. Road expansion remains important in improving transportation networks despite environmental consequences. The impact should be as minimal as possible.

The article is of great quality and addresses some of the realities affecting the economy. Coverage of the topics affecting economic growth is moderately satisfactory. Cantor has not exhausted some of his topics satisfactorily. He has not highlighted the role environment plays in boosting the economy apart from considering it as an obstacle. Also, tax has only been mentioned by the author but not much has been included regarding the way it may boost economic growth.