stimulus

[kimatha]

In today's paper there was an article about what Montana is going to get from the Stimulus Package.

I notice that one of the things is tax refunds of $400 for individuals (or $800 for couples, which works out to $400 a head, so i don't know why they distinguish it).

Anyway. I don't think pissy little refunds like that stimulate anything. To paraphrse Lewis Black, a little payment like that doesn't do anything except make you realize how totally fucked you are.

There's other stuff too, though - college aid, Head Start stuff, highway construction, etc.

I don't know though, if this is the right way to fix the economy. I sort of think that some of the bad debts just need to go bad and clear out of the system.

Since banks and other lenders seem to be too dumb to realize that lending money to people who can't pay them back is a Bad Idea, I think there ought to be some more regulation in lending.

If there's going to be spending, I would like to see it in ways that would actually create industry and real wealth. I'm not sure how to do that, but I definitely don't think giving every Joe Schmo $400 is going to do it.

What do YOU think needs to be done to fix the economy?

please, be mean and contentious and have flame wars! It will help divert me from my worrying about Freyja, so it's all for the good.

Comments

[kitiara.livejournal.com]

One thing: people need to go back to the ideas of keeping a healthy amount of money in savings and living on less than they earn. Give up credit entirely, and live by the rule of never getting into more than a 15 year fixed mortgage with a payment more than 25% of their take home pay. If everybody did that, there'd be no need for all these other shenanigans.

[lds.livejournal.com]

Problem is, this can't and won't happen as long as the incentives go the other way. Every dime of unfunded government spending amounts to either direct inflation or a potential for inflation, so dollars will continue to be worth less than real goods.

So I agree with you wholeheartedly about what should happen. (This is also the correct fix for our health care system that everybody seems to be looking for.) The first step is to provide them with incentives to do that, though: stop penalizing them for doing what they should. Reward them instead. Vote only for politicians who'll do that. I was happy to see you did.