Thursday, March 12, 2009

Stimulus Proponents: Admit it, it isn't about growth

Here is an insightful review of the Keynesian multiplier and why Europeans aren't as big on stimulus spending at the WSJ

They reference this study by prominent economists that shows only a temporary boost to the economy by stimulus spending. The "Keynesian multiplier" peaks at 1.4 only for a brief period and then it quickly diminishes to below 1.0 in 2010. Thus, we're paying a whole lot of money to ultimately hurt the economy long term. It's like being addicted to a narcotic. You need continually higher doses to achieve a high.

Keynesians: Admit it! This isn't about growth. It is about controlling society. It's about socially engineering outcomes. The real aim is to use the crisis to permanently create a constituency that is beholden to the Democratic Party for its livelihoods.

I was thinking about the great sacrifices of previous generations of Americans. How they died to protect freedom. Freedom was more important than life. But now, we're willing to trade our freedom for an elusive attempt to buy prosperity. It won't work and we sell our soul in the attempt. We saddle our grandchildren with even more debt. We have some noble veterans who are still willing to put it on the line for our country, but their numbers are very small as a percentage of the population. On average I think Americans have chosen material well-being over freedom. And they will get neither.