Wednesday, January 30, 2008

American Pragmatism and Economic Responsibility, part 2

Coming on the heels of being astonished at the size of my electricity bill in my new home, pragmatism I suppose has been my approach to money.

Now, I haven't taken economics. But I have a dad who managed to emerge in retirement as a millionaire from a career as an engineer, and he freely shares money advice by talking to his children like they are blithering idiots. I still have his voice in my head, saying "*&*%^$# Heather!" as he expresses amazement at our decisions. We have learned how our dad is, we take his "quirks" with a grain of salt. And along the way, he has impressed upon us some good economic advices.

So for me, when I hear of this economically stimulating package that intends to pay out a total of over 150 billion to us and other families in the nation to "save" the economy, I am wondering how is this responsible? We have a war and 9 trillion in debt. I am flummoxed.

Is this normal? Have I somehow lived my whole life not knowing that it was normal for the gov to send benjamins back to taxpayers... so thatultimately they would go to WalMart to stimulate the Chinese economy? Have they done this before? Isn't the interest we are paying on this money costing America a ton? Isn't interest sort of like a hole in the bucket?

Why do I feel like George W is a cracksmoker? Why does he always give money back to taxpayers... no one else ever did that, did they? Aren't they just going to ask for more later? How does this economics work?

Am I alone in feeling like these are wierd martian economics? Sort of like when he told us to go shopping after 911. That an adrenaline shot to the heart isn't really going to solve a long term downward tilt of our economy...

Either that, or I am the only one without an economics course, and clearly handing out money to citizens is a very fiscally responsible thing to do. It's a new world. And I am Emily LaTella (from SNL).

Am I the only one thinking that this "stimulus package" seems like bizarre election year economics that smell like a republican bid to garner positive feelings to a languishing political party? Not mention that this was the same guy who vetoed health insurance for kids?

Weigh in y'all! (all 2 of you)

edit: Irony.

So I know that George W. did this once before back in the days that I was in college, when I needed a kickback the most. Unfortunately, as a student, even with 2 jobs, I didn't make enough to qualify to get a check back. Subsequently, it does seem like this never happened before. Though I know that our state just sent our family back 700 some odd dollars, I can handle this come from a state economy (for some reason) better than the federal economy. All I know is that they better not say that anything is going unfunded if they are going to take all that money to send me back a check.

6 comments:

Glen Alan Woods said...

Howdy my friend. I share some of your concerns. I would gently point out that both sides of the political aisle seem equally enamoured with this stimulus package. Only, the Democrats in the senate are adding dollars to it, about 10 billion dollars last I heard. But hey, what's a few billion between citizens? :D

The problem is, most people are not going to use it to spend money on goods, as they hope. Instead they will pay down debt, save it, or whatever.

Unknown said...

yeah there would be no way for it to pass through as it as without bipartisan support, so I didn't mean to make it seem like "all the republic party's fault" heck, I have voted republican, so...

but actually, J and I will use it as par tof a downpayment to buy a much needed automobile...

Mrs. T said...

Didn't he do this once before? I think we actually sent ours to the Democrats.

Unknown said...

Yes, he did. I remember because I was in a Masters Degree program, with scholarships, working 2 jobs and doing practicums but yet, I wasn't eligible because I didn't pay enough in taxes.

Do I sound bitter? I don't mean to. Very little about politicians is logical to me, and when it is explained, I only want to take a shower.

HappyChyck said...

I think the whole idea seems a little bizarre, too. And, yes, it does seem like we are being bought or something. What really cracks me up is how all the financial analysts and advisors are telling people to not spend it but to use it to pay down debt or save it, and indeed most of the people I know intend to follow the analysts' advice. I'm not sure how the whole will help the economy because I haven't heard a straight answer about how the last refund (which was quite a bit smaller) helped the economy, but if the government wants to give me some money back, I'm too bled out (tax gouged) to squawk too much.

Greg said...

You're not hallucinating...

George W is most definitely a cracksmoker...