more power to us

Let's kill two birds with one stone. Projections say that the population in the United States will keep growing and that we'll need an abundance of electric power to keep everybody happy. Environmentalists are generally against adding more fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants, and smart people know that solar and wind power will provide only a fraction of the power that we need. So, that's a problem.

Then there is the problem of dealing with the government's deficit that keep growing. As time passes, more and more people will need some sort of financial assistance, and it doesn't look like things will get better.

Let's use both of those problems to find a solution. Here's what we do:

• We create, all over the country, giant stationary bike centers run by federal contractors. The bikes would be attached to a common axle that would connect to generators that ultimately would feed the electricity grid. The axles would turn only when people were on the bikes spinning the pedals.

• Who would these people be? They would be those getting government assistance each month. Why would they pedal? Because it would be the only way they would get their monthly stipend from the government.

I am not talking about 40 hours a week on the stationary bike. The only requirement would be one hour a month. How many people get government assistance? Probably millions. So, for one hour a month, those folks would have to go in and pedal a bike. Pedaling also could be done as ordered by a court as a form of punishment, or on a voluntary basis. An added benefit would be that jobs would be created, because Congress would mandate that only U.S.-made stationary bikes could be used in the stationary bike centers. So, bike manufacturers would pop up throughout the United States.

If we got millions of people each month powering generators, that would be a lot of "green" electricity that could be supplied to the nation.

There are all kinds of loopholes in this idea, I know. Ambulance-chasing lawyers would have a whole new field opened up to them: "Your honor, my client injured his thigh muscles while pedaling a defective bike...." Drug addicts, old people, kids, the injured, the afflicted, etc. would not be able to pedal a bike. Some percentage actually would drop dead from peddling. There would be valid reasons to be excused. But, c'mon, what healthy and sane person couldn't offer one hour a month? By employing this method, we would be killing those two birds with one stone: Putting people back to "work" and providing the nation with "green" electricity.

The stationary bike idea would work only in a perfect world. But what a better world it would be.