I don't know if it will work, I really don't. I suppose it might, but there are two things I don't like about it. First, it emphasizes a statist approach rather than a personal initiative approach. That is, "trust the state to take care of you—cradle to grave—every risk mitigated by the government." That is anathema to the bloggers at Knowledge of Rurul Ways. Plus, I don't know that statism has a real track record of success. On the other hand, the voters are tired of suffering losses that they feel can be blamed on global free trade, lax regulation, and fat cat greed, so perhaps full-blown statism is an idea whose time has come. Second, the $800 billion is supposed to reach the "economy" by way of government bureaucracies. The money is being funneled through state and federal agencies as a way to stimulate the private sector. Well, guess what? Government bureaucracies are notoriously ineffecient. Moreover, the bill comes with very tight deadlines. The money is supposed to reach the ground in a matter of days—30, 60, 120 days. Unfortunately, you can't get the paper work finished to buy a federal office chair in 120 days, so I don't know how $800 billion is likely to be distributed in less time than that. In any case, I may be wrong, but I'm not stupid: I read the whole package—407 pages—twice. I won't tell you what I found, but I intend to take advantage of it. Hey, maybe this bill will stimulate personal initiative after all.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Stimulus
I don't know if it will work, I really don't. I suppose it might, but there are two things I don't like about it. First, it emphasizes a statist approach rather than a personal initiative approach. That is, "trust the state to take care of you—cradle to grave—every risk mitigated by the government." That is anathema to the bloggers at Knowledge of Rurul Ways. Plus, I don't know that statism has a real track record of success. On the other hand, the voters are tired of suffering losses that they feel can be blamed on global free trade, lax regulation, and fat cat greed, so perhaps full-blown statism is an idea whose time has come. Second, the $800 billion is supposed to reach the "economy" by way of government bureaucracies. The money is being funneled through state and federal agencies as a way to stimulate the private sector. Well, guess what? Government bureaucracies are notoriously ineffecient. Moreover, the bill comes with very tight deadlines. The money is supposed to reach the ground in a matter of days—30, 60, 120 days. Unfortunately, you can't get the paper work finished to buy a federal office chair in 120 days, so I don't know how $800 billion is likely to be distributed in less time than that. In any case, I may be wrong, but I'm not stupid: I read the whole package—407 pages—twice. I won't tell you what I found, but I intend to take advantage of it. Hey, maybe this bill will stimulate personal initiative after all.
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can't buy a federal office chair in 120 days. true.
ReplyDeleteBut we could buy SPOT imagery in 2 days or less. maybe they should have called out an Incident Management Team to spend the money.