Mark Cuban: Trump Is Right On Infrastructure

Here are more details, from AOL:

Mark Cuban says President Trump is right on the need for infrastructure spending. But the billionaire entrepreneur argues it needs to be "infrastructure 4.0," which would be "looking towards the future rather than trying to recreate the past” as the pace of technology accelerates.

On Tuesday, Trump called for a $2 trillion infrastructure bill to boost the economy reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill. It should be VERY Big & Bold, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4," the president tweeted.

"He's right,” Cuban told Yahoo Finance in an interview on Tuesday. “But, the question is: How do we do it and what do we do? I don't think we can just do it the old school way of just rebuilding roads and bridges. We need to look and say, 'Can we do a complete reset? What do we need to do going forward?’”

Cuban argued that "you can't just bring over manufacturing and expect it to be competitive." However, the first step would be investing in robotics as an example.

"We are not the leader in robotics in the world. So, when we talk about infrastructure, we can talk about building the new factories that incorporate robotics and building software. So then, we can start bringing over those jobs from China and manufacture the critical PPE and other products that we need to have manufactured here. That's part 1."

The second part is to be mindful of climate change and keep emissions low for the future.

"When we talk about rebuilding infrastructure, I think we need to start asking about having self-driving cars-only lanes on roads,” he said. “We need to talk about on highways, how do we make sure self-driving trucks and autonomous vehicles can operate with cross-country carrying and load-carrying?"

Cuban said part of this process will involve getting people comfortable with self-driving cars, especially within cities. He suggested putting bridges over the top of roads like in Las Vegas for pedestrians crossing the street.

And from the Business Insider:

Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban has a suggestion for President-elect Donald Trump's infrastructure plan: Make sure to spend some cash on robotics.

In a Sunday night post on his blog, Blog Maverick, Cuban said a "big chunk" of the $1 trillion Trump proposal should be spent on research and development, software, and design for robots "and every other facet of the robotics industry."

Cuban said that if he were spending the money, he'd allocate 10% — or about $100 billion — to the effort.

"Unfortunately, none of the companies that actually make the robotics are based here in the USA," wrote Cuban, the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. "That's a problem that needs to be solved. We need to help develop domestic companies much like we did the electric-car and wind and solar industries. Even if it means trying to help pick winners."

"We have to win the robotics race," he continued. "We are not even close right now."

Cuban added that China, South Korea, and European countries are offering billions in credits to support their robotics industries, whereas the US spends a fraction of that.

"That ain't gonna work," he wrote. "The good news, if there is any, is that according to the report, China is only spending $3 billion dollars a year on robotics. We need to quickly pass them by."

"Why is this so important?" he continued. "Because technological change always accelerates. It never stagnates over time. Which means we are going to face the fact that if nothing in the States changes, we will find ourselves dependent on other countries for almost everything that can and will be manufactured in a quickly approaching future."

While many Americans voted for Trump in hopes of stunting globalization or stunting the rapidly increasing automation of jobs, Cuban said Americans "have to face the fact" that jobs are going to be lost to robotics.

"The only question that needs to be answered is which country will create and own the best robotic technology and have the infrastructure necessary to enable it," he wrote. "Right now it's not the USA, and that needs to change. Our 'infrastructure' spending should look forwards, not backwards, so that we can be the robotics hub of the world."

Trump's infrastructure plan calls for $550 billion of the $1 trillion proposal to be publicly funded, and his push for increased infrastructure spending has been more vocally favored by congressional Democrats rather than Republicans.

Cuban, who was a prominent supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and a critic of Trump on the campaign trail, recently dubbed Trump the country's "No. 1 draft pick."

"He's who we put our hopes and dreams with, and we're going to believe in him," he said. "Right now it's a little bit easier because we haven't played a game yet."