Stimulus in a Nutshell
Imagine an abusive husband, constantly beating the daylights out of his wife.
Imagine that same husband realizing that one beating has gone a little bit too far, and he has to make it up to his wife.
So he gets a check (from their joint checking account), gives her semi-conscious body a poke with his foot, and mumbles “Here baby. I’m sorry, but you know how I get. Here’s a check: go buy yourself something nice. Oh, and make sure you put some make-up on that black eye, we don’t want the neighbors getting the wrong idea.
“Oh, and you can pay me back later.”
That is the stimulus in a nutshell. Just as the husband in my analogy hasn’t gotten counseling for his violent behavior, nothing that caused the economy to tank has been changed. That check you’ll be receiving in the next few weeks is “shut up” money.
Buy drugs or bootleg DVDs. Pay a credit card debt.
But if you can help it, do not put a single dime of that check into the legal economy.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Hmmm… This “stimulus” package is the exact same thing the Republicans absolutely excorciated George McGovern for when he proposed it during the 1972 presidential campaign. You’re far too young to remember that, but not to appreciate the irony.