Sunday, January 27, 2008
Pointless Stimulus?
Lately, I have heard alot in the news about an "Economic Stimulus Package". At first, I was a little confused, after all, the ecomomy is so large and diverse, how could you possibly stimulate all of it, and more importantly, why would you want to? Well, I did a little reading and things became clearer. First of all the "Economic Stimulus Package" is a bipartisan plan in Congress developed to give our economy a boost. Under this plan, people making under 75,000 a year (150,000 for couples) would be eligable to recieve checks in the mail from the federal government. People who pay federal income tax would recieve $600.00, and couples who filed their taxes jointly would get $1,200. Now for the reasons why the federal government would sen 16 million people checks. As I'm sure many of you have heard, our economy seems to be heading for a recession. Basically, people begin to cut back and buy less. This means that some stores will either cut back or close because they cannot pay their bills. The people the store laid off will have to cut back because they don't have a job, so it will force the whole thing to repeat again. Presumably, people will take these checks and immediately buy things with it, thereby stopping the cycle. However, critics of the plan have labeled it as superficial, claiming that most of the checks are directed at upper-middle class families who will probably save it. The people that need the money the most, they contend, are the lower-income families. They are more likely to quickly use the money, where as higher-income families have no need for the extra cash. Also, there is no guarantee that people will buy only US-made goods, which could mean that alot of the money won't stay in the country. Democrats originally pushed for other measures, such as summer-job programs and food stamps, which the critics say would help, but have dropped it. Any thoughts? Do you think that the plan will work or not?
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7 comments:
Well Madelyn, I remember we had a little bit of a discussion of this in class. I understand what your saying and I think that it really wouldn't work, because if we give the money to the middle class, and or the lower class wouldn't some of them try to save it to end up getting compound interest on the money? Also, the other fact is that most of the stuff in my house says "Made In China" or Japan or India on it. And most of our things such as T.V's and computers are made in other countries.
Another thing though is that a lot of people in debt, may end up using the money to pay bills, which I don't know how that would help the US economy.
I don't think that this would work either because I think that people will save this money and not want to spend it. Lower income people might spend it but they will be very stingy with it and only use it when necesary. Where is our government going to get the money. Aren't we in debt because of the stupid war?
this is a great blog! we just are learning about recession in us history, so it's cool that you would blog about something related to it at this time.
i think the plan can work, but not that it necessarily will.
i think that it can only work if people understand the fact that this money is to help us stay away from recession. people need to be educated about this stuff so they can spend the money wisely. unfortunately, some people are too selfish and/or ignorant to let this work.
also, katie brought up a good point with the issue of where the government will be getting this money from. if we do spend 16 million or however much it is on people who save the money or spend it overseas, wont the country be in even more debt?
i really hope the plan will be a success, but unfortunately, it will be pretty tough to pull off.
Who cares about the national debt?! No, just kidding, sort of. Anyway, as a taxpayer and future recipient of these checks, I say, " Give me all the money back you want" The government is already taking too much of our money, which is really insulting becuase I don't feel I get a good return on this so called, "investment." Anyway, I don't think these checks will help much. If they want to really stimulate the economy, the federal government can cut our taxes and quit wasting our money. At least they are giving the money back to the people that actually paid it though.
it makes sense, but it just seems to me like a quick fix....and a really retarted one at that. plus (from what i've seen on the news and other places) the "recession" is getting world wide now. Londons stocks are going down and in asia too. so i think (i might be wrong) our economies are intertwined with eachother so if one country is doing bad than others that trade with it go down with it. Like Germany in the 30's, america was in a depression and so was germany. so if this plan helps get OUR economy a little better whats to stop it from going down again because of our international trading partners economies? plus 1,200$ per couple, chances are they arent going to go on a buyling splurge, but instead use that money to help pay off their mortgage. which ironically is how this whole mess started.
I get the point of this plan but I think it's sort of stupid. Our Nation is already majorly in debt right? so why are we spending this much money so that the economy (which hasn't slowed down all that much) will speed up again. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world for the U.S. to have a slowdown, as long as it's not to big.
To answer your question about the BEC's, I think that the BEC's actually absorb the light. I just read part of the article and it said that because it absorbs the light she is able to manipulate it, inside the BEC and then let it go.
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