"Stimulus Package" - sounds like a pink, kinky deal at first - but all it shows for, is a planed blessing from the government.
This is how it works:
First the government took your money; then they spend it all and borrowed astronomical sums on top of it.
Now (the government) gives you a bit back ($600 in change or so in May). You, the consumer, will spend it on this and that in order to "stimulate" the economy while the big fat fishes grow even bigger and the government will tax that spending again from the little skinny fishes. They are fucking geniuses these politicians.
Spend a little, receive more. What a scam. It sounds like an overdose blowjob on 42nd Street. Unreal dude!
Wait, there is something else wrong with that picture. What do you actually "stimulate" with such an act? Who might be the fearful looser of such a stimulation? Could it be you or I?
Sure, something will happen if you hand out cash to about 150 million people. It is for the masses like winning a scratch ticket in the lottery. So what. The ones who really profit are the big companies, when all the sheep (ups, little skinny fishes) go to the stores to consume yet an other gadget that is totally unnecessary for their existence and which they couldn't really afford in the first place.
It seems just a bit absurd to me, that the US government, who is deep in dept, shares cash on (newly printed paper... what's that worth?) to it's citizens which doesn't even exist in the first place, awaiting a turn in tide by such actions.
The USDollar is way down compared to the Euro, and the Canadian Dollar runs higher as well.
Since we already have a war (or two or three) we can't possibly invent an other one to stimulate the economy. Bummer. I guess therefore we get this injection.
Will it work? Perhaps in the short run - but like with all drugs, the trip will fade away and leave an even more somber citizen behind, craving for an other "shot."
The root of the problem is not that we don't spend enough, we already spend more than we really need. The issue is put totally upside down. To have REAL growth we should start to conserve and save ... only that works in the long run. Everything else is like crack-cocaine, a short high followed by a long down.
I have a lingering suspicion that politicians like to have common folks to stay addicts - forever!
Tuesday, February 12
give me more drugs (...or the needle and the damage done)
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9 comments:
The way things are going little fish will be spending their stimulous for groceries, gasoline or some medicine for the kids. I hope that makes the big fish happy.. or not.
I read somewhere that in the past 60 years the US has been at war somewhere for a total of 56. Are we safer, happier, more free, more respected, richer?
our Alberta (known to some as 'Oilberta') Conservative gov't likes to give away money too... seems to work; they keep winning elections. not even a new drug, but habit forming.
A prosperous economy is one that does create, Susan; may it be poetry, pathways, property development ...
All ill stricken economies on the other hand depend on the rulers who hand out peasant bread and other freebies.
With all due respect,some European (most) nations were at war continuously for hundreds of years. Only the last 60 years were calm. A drop in the bucket, though admittedly an improvement.
Yes, we need more prosperity and real money going towards making America a good example for the world by spending on infrastructure, healthcare, education and ecologically sound transport among other things.
I'm very aware of the continous wars in Europe over the course of hundreds of years but you're right - they stopped and began doing more of the above. We could take a lesson.
Grannyfidler ... that is why you play violin, to chase away all dusty clouds - and it works!
Susan
Unfortunately nobody likes to give in and say: I can learn a thing or two from you. This is very much the case of the US as a nation - insular really. Understandable but frustrating.
Frustrating because the pathway in economics, trade and innovation remain a one way street.
The pessimistic view of this is, that the US will stubbornly continue on the way to ruin.
Alas, I will plant an other fruit tree next spring. Not that this would make a whole lot of difference, nevertheless ....
there are a couple (beyond the other dozens) of interesting facets of this arrangement called 'stimulus package' that absolutely no one that i've heard (read: 'official') have even touched on in what we call the mass media...the propaganda that informs the sleeping masses...
first off, the majority of the american dollar currency is wysiwyg: paper. by some estimates the matching gold in federal reserve is as much (or as little) as .04 on the dollar. that's our dollar having a real value of four cents. interesting. so really it's like writing checks and thinking everything is fine...as long as we have checks in the checkbook, there must be money in the account. there may be a flaw to that logic. maybe, i'm no expert.
the second, perhaps more contemporary aspect is that china is largely floating our economy (giving us our fix, as it were) and has been for some time. europeans, it seems (and admitted, this is simulacrum on my part, not empirical), pay for chinese imports on quite a different scale: what we might purchase at wally-world for three bucks may run eight bucks or more in france or england et al. the whys are complex to be sure, but you get the sensation of a looming shadow stretching ever so slowly toward you on the prairie, don't ya?
hey, i'm thrilled to get a few hundred bucks. we have little choice but to play by the rules, and honestly, i'm basically okay with that. i really do strive to 'be the change' Gahndi spoke of, and if i have little say in the parameters, so be it: the stage is set as we walk on. sure, let's improvise a bit and everything else we do, and even when the sandbags are falling from the eaves, let's laugh and love and cry and live our lives to the absolute fullest we can. anything else is truly and in every sense a waste of time.
thanks for your 'stimulus', zee.
I think I'll borrow $600 somewhere and let Uncle Sam pay it back. Oh wait, nobody wants to lend anymore.
hey thanks for giving me an insight into the so called 'stimulus package' by ur government.
it sounds like a tight rope walk to me.
what im more interested is in the package's effect on the global economy. moreover, in what manner has the housing sector crisis been addressed in the 'package'..? i do believe that, the US being the largest economic partner to most of the countries in the world, has a pivotal role to play in ther economies world wide, especially the developing ones. So it would be interesting to follow what the government plans to do regardin the economic security in the long term...
i would personally prefer to go back to the fundamentals of economic policies rather than device a temporary fix as this one.
thanks for the post, i was looking for one on similar lines.
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