Stimulus

"Stimulus checks should be in the mail in May. I don't know if I will even get one. But what a concept! It's sort of Pavolovian. You hear the words stimulus and checks and start to salivate, expecting the rewards to come. There is a certain logic involved. The public is about two thirds of the economy. If they stop spending the economy suffers. If the economy suffers too much there is a recession, or depression. So...in order to keep the economy going you just have to give the public some money, assuming they will run right out and spend it and thus save us from ourselves. Not a bad idea, huh? There is a slight flaw in this concept, however, a trivial little matter that has to do with the fact that the government doesn’t have 168 billion dollars to give us all a stimulus. I guess they assume that as we are slightly over 9 trillion dollars in debt another 168 billion won’t matter. This is what passes now for fiscal responsibility. This plan is supposed to stimulate us in two ways, stimulate us to go out and spend, and thus stimulate the economy. There is no doubt most people will spend the money as they are all tapped out and losing their homes and going hungry because of the cost of food and fuel and etc. But there is also a question of where they will spend this money and for what. You can be certain that a great deal of it will be spent in Wal Mart. Wal Mart gets most of its merchandise from China. China is probably going to have to lend us the 168 billion so I suppose in some sense it is only fair that we buy Chinese made Wal Mart junk. But how, you might ask, does that help our economy? Well, you might say we’ll spend a lot of it on oil. Yes, no doubt we will. But the oil mostly comes from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Canada, and elsewhere. So how does that help our economy? Food, that’s it. We’ll spend a lot of it on food. But our food is increasingly coming from overseas: asparagus from Peru, fish from China, Thailand, New Zealand, and elsewhere. How is that going to help our economy? There must be something made in America, how about cars? Yes, there are cars made in America. The best selling cars made in America are being made by Japanese companies. They do employ American labor so that I guess is good. But explain to me how it is the Japanese can manufacture cars and make a profit in the U.S., where American companies have to increasingly outsource for labor and supplies. I confess this is all a mystery to me. I’m not an economist (of course I’m not into witchcraft either), I don’t understand these things. But I just can’t wait to get my stimulus (if, indeed, I do get one).

Speaking of Wal Mart I find myself sometimes having to shop there. I never used to shop there. But a combination of living too long and shrinking retirement benefits, plus the terrible inflation that has set in, has caused me to attempt to adjust to poverty. Thus I go to Wal Mart with most of the rest of America (sometimes it’s the only game in town). As I am now one of them I do not mean to speak disparagingly about this experience. However, I must admit that when I go there I feel like I am in a gigantic warehouse full of losers. The clerks and managers and such seem to be losers, and the customers for the most part are certainly losers (like me). It is depressing. I know they are working for less than living wages and I know the customers are there because they can’t afford to shop elsewhere (if, indeed, they have anywhere else to shop once they have a Wal Mart in their vicinity). Adding insult to injury I have recently learned that fully 80% of what you buy at Wal Mart is not, in fact, cheaper than elsewhere (they sell a few items cheaper and advertise always cheaper prices, etc..It’s a kind of scam). But like I say, once you have a Wal Mart you don’t find many other places to shop anyway. Sometimes when I first wake up in the morning I lie there reflecting upon things (it’s my best time for reflecting). Often I reflect on the “ultimate real,” but lately I’ve been reflecting on Wal Mart, wondering how much different it might make if the three or four multi-billionaires that own it would just take a few billions less out of the till for themselves and pay their help better (and perhaps even buy better merchandise). But then reality sets in once again and I realize how lucky we are to live under a full-blown “free-market” society where mostly everything is “privatized.” This is why we are doing so well. Just wait until they get to privatize water and air, along with medical care, fuel, and food. It will no doubt put the finishing touches on paradise. If I sound cynical, I am.

The Democrats finally managed to stand up to Bush/Cheney. Only on the question of illegal spying, however. The war and torture party still gets its way on most everything else. Having consistently blocked any Democratic attempt to stop the illegal “war,” and now voting not to ban torture, I guess it is very clear where the Brafia stands. It should be an interesting election: the war and torture party versus us “wimps.”

LKBIQ:
"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and its all over much too soon."
Woody Allen