Answer: When it’s an Economic Stimulus check.
I got mine this week. Lets take a look at it and see just what it is stimulating.
Well, I could spend it on gas. God knows I use enough of it, commuting to my job. My spending on gasoline just to get to work has jumped from 10% of my take home pay to over 20%. But if I spend it on gas, who am I stimulating? Not any one in the US. Do I really want to give it to Saudia Arabia? No.
I could spend it on groceries. After all, I do have to eat. U.S. food prices rose 4 percent in 2007, compared with an average 2.5 percent annual rise for the last 15 years, according to the USDA. And 2008 could be worse, with a rise of as much as 4.5 percent. Although over 80 percent of the seafood Americans eat is imported, less than 2 percent of total seafood imports are inspected. Only 11 percent of beef, pork and chicken imported in 2007 was inspected at the border by the USDA. Problems found in the small percent of inspected food include Listeria, Salmonella, Vibrio and just plain old filth. Do I need to stimulate Mexico, Peru, Panama, or China? No. I think I will continue to attempt to raise most of my own food. (And as an aside – it is NOT the American farmer that is getting the bulk of the money that accounts for the rising price of groceries).
I could go to Wally World and spend it on cheap imported crap from China. Those poor Chinese sure need my help, don’t you think. Wait, I am supposed to be stimulating the AMERICAN ECONOMY.
Taking into account all of our outstanding liabilities (including the ones the politicians don’t want to mention and conveniently don’t mention) we have a $55 trillion national debt, and it is going up every minute. What has it bought us? 1.5 million aimed at refurbishing a statue, $650,000 for ornamental fish research; $2 million to store the Smithsonian’s collection of preserved frogs, lizards, and assorted critters, $4 million for a civilian research center in Acadia National Park, $90,000 for the Steamship Authority that operates ferries to Martha’s Vineyard ( all of those poor folks that live out there have to have a way of getting around, you know).
You will be glad to know that even though your wages haven’t risen much (or any at all), your productivity is up. Business sector productivity grew 2.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008 as output increased 0.6 percent and hours worked by all persons—employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers—declined 1.7 percent (seasonally adjusted annual rates) according to the Bureau of US Labor Statistics. I know my productivity in my job has increased – due to the boss not replacing workers in my department as they moved on or died (5 in the last few years). I have to move my ass faster just to keep up, not that my wages are keeping up with my ass. But at least the boss has a nice house in Mexico and can take a 6 months vacation every year. By the way, a 20 cent raise is NOT going to make a big difference in my lifestyle!
It’s not that I couldn’t use the money, it’s just that I don’t see exactly what the idiots persons who thought up this waste of taxpayers money thought they were accomplishing. It’s not enough money to make a real difference in most people’s life. Most of the things that it will be spent on, will not help the AMERICAN economy. It adds to the National Debt, which the politicians seem to be adding to nicely without any additional help. It is mortgaging our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. It will have to be paid back someday, with interest.
So, what is my point? Attention elected representatives – yes, you folks in Washington D. C. I’m talking to you. The point is FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. You are digging a hole – STOP DIGGING. Stop screwing the American people. Don’t stick crap in a popular bill, just so it will get passed, because no one wants to say no in a popularity contest. Read the bills you are passing (remember the Farm Bill?), take a good hard look at spending. If I ran my checkbook and bank account the way the Government runs this country, I would be broke and in jail in very short order.
Spend the money we need to to fix what’s broke and keep the country running. Don’t spend our hard earned dollars on pet projects just because you can. Spend the taxpayers money just like it was your own hard earned dollars. We will all be better off.
And my Economic Stimulus check, what will I spend it on? The simple answer is, nothing. I am sending it back to the fairy land it came from. I may have to pay but I don’t have to play.
