Well, no, my assumption is not that we trick anybody; its simply that in order to have demand people have to "feel" comfortable taking a risk. That takes institutions and a growing economy. As an example think of buying a house - that's a pretty big bold bet on the future of the economy!
As to whether the stimulus was Keynes or not, your talking point - because it's not actually any type of decent reasoning - is wrong. The stimulus was both much too little and very politically targeted. I.e. It was simply more discretionary spending with a teeny tiny amount of stimulus. Hardly Keynesian. So no we haven't tried that at all. However I'm sure you missed that part on fox news, what with all the Murdock spying coverage that channel is blasting 24/7. Sent from my iPad On Jul 23, 2011, at 3:29 PM, Sam <sammyc...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 3:14 PM, Grussgott <grussg...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> The question on the table seems to be HOW do we incent purchasing such that >> we create growth? > > You assumption is we need to trick folks into buying unneeded items > to keep people working. If that were the case we'd just need to elect > Jobs as president. People can still save and have the economy rolling > again. Many jobs would come available with small businesses hiring > just to ease the work load. The more jobs will mean more spending for > those needs above the bare minimum. Snowball effect. I say so many > have cut back so far that if they start earning again and raise there > standings that will be the turnaround we need. We should also start > drilling in the gulf. But who cares what the courts say when your the > boss. > >> But if I didn't have that demand I sure wouldn't build a new factory; I >> might invest to lower ops costs but then I'd sit tight. And even if the >> government cut my taxes that wouldn't change my demand picture so I'd still >> sit tight. And that seems to be where our economy is. > > I see it has you are working at full capacity and need a new factory > to ease things up and lower costs in the long term buy utilizing new > tech etc. Question is do you play it safe and wait out this admin or > do you gamble everything and pray they don't regulate and tax you into > bankruptcy. But that's just one example, not all companies are > manufacturing. > >> So I'm back to Keynes; if business isn't spending and consumers aren't >> spending the only way to kick the economy in the arse is government >> spending. But then what about the debt? I dunno but I can't get around the >> logic of that conclusion. > > We did that, against the advice of some wise folks, and it was a > trillion dollar failure. Even the Bush $200 or $300 tax rebate > stimulus was a stupid waste of money so why up the ante? > And as Rob pointed out, there's no guarantee the money will even be spent h > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:340890 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
