"Stimulus is an investment in the future benefit of full production."
It's sort of pointless to try to create jobs for the sake of creating jobs - especially if they all go away once stimulus stops - in which case it's just another entitlement program. It would seem to be a massive leap to assume that implementing half measures to sustain marginal businesses will "pay for themselves".
Governments at both the state level and federal level overspent relative to the size of the economy during the good years. What would be laughable is to tax further or create greater burdens on business to pay for the mistakes of governance. The massive increases in debt also do not come without risk.
Stimulus and cash for clunkers may well increase interest costs for everyone (interest charges to businesses are additive to that charged to the US government). If true, this will almost certainly mean less profitability and less jobs in the future. If anything, the history of central planning shows that governments cannot sustainably create jobs, they can only provide the environment for businesses and individuals who flourish to create jobs.
It's sort of pointless to try to create jobs for the sake of creating jobs - especially if they all go away once stimulus stops - in which case it's just another entitlement program. It would seem to be a massive leap to assume that implementing half measures to sustain marginal businesses will "pay for themselves".
Governments at both the state level and federal level overspent relative to the size of the economy during the good years. What would be laughable is to tax further or create greater burdens on business to pay for the mistakes of governance. The massive increases in debt also do not come without risk.
From Arnold Kling on "the anti-stimulus" - http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/05/the_anti-stimul....
Stimulus and cash for clunkers may well increase interest costs for everyone (interest charges to businesses are additive to that charged to the US government). If true, this will almost certainly mean less profitability and less jobs in the future. If anything, the history of central planning shows that governments cannot sustainably create jobs, they can only provide the environment for businesses and individuals who flourish to create jobs.