Hey all! it's been a while. We're doing good on the house, I plan to post some more pictures soon, but first a bit of politics.
If you're looking for the economy, you'll find it in the crapper. We've got lots of unemployment, less credit, less spending, less confidence, and less consumption.
Everyone agrees that something needs to be done to boost the economy before it gets worse. So what will get us the "most bang for our buck"? Is it tax cuts, spending on public works projects, aid to the states? What is the most effective use of dollars. We already have a trillion dollar deficit, so it'd be nice if we could avoid simply throwing money at the thing, like we did with the banks. We should be making targeted investments, and we should be able to see exactly where that money is going.
Tax cuts work different for different groups. For the working class it's supposed to encourage us to buy stuff. Pay down our debt, and get a new laptop or something. It's real similar to the rebate checks we got last time around, except it comes out of our payroll taxes instead.
Tax cuts on the upper classes, that's where we expect tax cuts to do the most good, because if they have more money it inspires them to go ahead and create more jobs for us poor working stiffs... right? I doubt it, if people aren't buying their product they're not hiring. If you sell fewer cars this year, why hire new people? And when people don't have decent jobs, then they can't buy your cars... we're still broke.
I think tax cuts are the equivalent of throwing money at the thing... "Here, everyone have a little cash, go spend it, and this will probably work itself out." Sounds like a faith based economic philosophy to me. I don't have any confidence that the invisible hand of the market will save us. I'd rather a more practical approach.
You know what inspires companies to create jobs? Better sales!!!! Increase demand, and guess what, they'll increase the size of their workforce.
If we want this recovery package to work, the government needs to buy stuff, lots of it, because that creates demand. Buy new computers for the schools, fix roads and bridges, make government buildings more energy efficient, buy some hybrid cars for the postal service, modernize some hospitals...
There are a million things in this country that have been neglected because of an anti-spending attitude in Washington. We live in Buffalo right, we've got a hundred plans and a hundred projects that are ready to go, if we just had the cash to go ahead and build. You don't even have to be creative just give states, counties and cities the money they've been waiting for. But remember, local governments can be just as corrupt as the Feds, make sure that we know exactly where the money is being spent. I love Obama's idea of making all this information public online. Transparency in government is so important.
Article supporting tax cuts
US News article
NY times roundup
I'm going to admit in part that you've been right about Barack Obama being a unifier. I still don't think he's having much effect to that end, but I know now he really means it. After all, who would willingly piss off a segment of their constituency during the inaugural?
Today I've seen some liberal behavior during the inaugural, of course with the accompanying conservative meltdowns, and thought there's no way anyone can unify us. We're more divided than ever. I'm not trying to harsh anyone's mellow but from where I sit we have a long way to go.
So today I've been gripping about that, but this afternoon realized other people's baggage doesn't have to effect me. Reaching for Obama's standard is a hell of a lot more honorable than reaching for the lowest common denominator. That's bullshit.
Neither of us will agree 100% with President Obama but it's nice to see that at least one person is considering what Obama is asking of us. This means eschewing some popular inquisitions in the left wing, by the way, if you ask me.