Was just thinking about the stimulus and was wondering what you guys think of my idea. What if instead of giving the 800 billion to the companies, the government gave the 800 billion to U.S citizens evenly, so it would be 800 bill/310 mill? which is about 2500$ per person. And each person would probably either spend that on necessities, or put it into banks; either putting more money into businesses or putting more money into banks to increase the amount that banks can lend. Would that have solved our economic problem better than the obviously failed/failing stimulus?
They tried that during the Bush administration, and people just put the money in the bank or paid bills.
WTF else was the average joe supposed to do with it. if i remember correctly we got some ling overdue dental stuff done. not strictly 'paying the bills' but in the same vein.
They wanted people to go out and spend it on retail goods. That's what the Government thinks 'stimulus' is, to get people to spend their money on posessions.
okay so here is a stupid question....what if i don't desire possessions? i mean i got 'em, sure. and if it is stuff i can't live without (like a rocking powder board) then i got the best shit around....but as far as possessions go.....I "have a poorly developed acquisitive instinct" as ed abbey once put it.
It would destroy the dollar over night. You can't dump nearly $1 trillion into the market without seeing a devaluation in its purchasing power. Think of it this way. A Babe Ruth rookie card sold in 2008 for over $500,000. Why is that card worth so much? Because there are only NINE known to exist in the world. They are very rare so they are worth a lot. And it's Babe Ruth so.... But what if someone discovered a warehouse with 1 million mint condition Babe Ruth rookie cards in it? Now all of a sudden anyone who wants to buy one can do so. The value of the card would plummet as 1 million mint condition Babe Ruth rookie cards are sold on the open market for $100, or whatever the price would be. Money is no different. Money is just another commodity in the market that is traded in many different ways. But if you dump a whole bunch of it into the market at one time you are going to see decreases in its purchasing power. Another way to look at it is you have more money chasing after fewer goods. As with everything the more you have of something the less valuable it becomes. Money is no different.
That's what Kevin Rudd did here, as a result of the GFC... trying to stimulate consumer spending and all the like by giving us all $900 a pop. It largely worked, we're apparently one of the countries most sheltered from the effects of the crisis with little job loss and a steadily rising dollar. Whether that's due to Rudds stimulus package or other factors (like the fact that US probably took all the economic damage for us, like a punching bag) is another question...
What if the government stopped trying to manipulate the economy with tactics that don't work, just got the fuck out of the way and stopped crippling business so the economy could fix itself? Or if the government would just stop spending so goddamn much money? I think either of those would work far better than redistributing wealth, which is what "stimulus money" is. The money comes from somewhere ya know...
We shouldn't give 800 billion to the companies or the people. Because we don't have 800 billion in the first place.
i said to google it but you refused to so that means you refuse to learn even though you know you're wrong so there's no point in arguing with you
I suppose you are new to this whole "discussion" thing. Let me explain how it works. When in the course of a debate, such as this one, a person makes a claim it is customary that one provides at least some intelligent argument to support their claims. Simply stating that "that's not how inflation works" does not actually provide any argument at all. Directing a person to Google also fails to provide any rational or intelligent response to a question. You see it is not the responsibility of the reader to prove your arguments. That is your job. If you want anyone to take you seriously then you must at least attempt to explain your position. I know it can be hard sometimes, especially if you don't know what you're talking about, but give it a try if you can.