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I still can't wrap my head around the idea that the US borrowing money to give consumers can get us out of trouble caused by borrowing too much money in the fir
by TrevorJ 17y ago
I still can't wrap my head around the idea that the US borrowing money to give consumers can get us out of trouble caused by borrowing too much money in the first place.
It's kind of like giving a skydiver a shovel so that when his 'chute fails he can just dig a hole in the ground so fast that he never has to touch bottom.
- jonknee 17y agoI think the idea is that everyone is nervous right now and not spending (which means business is down which means layoffs happen which means people get more nervous and spend even less), so by starting off spending the gov't is trying to restart the engine. No one wants to jump off the diving board first so to speak. I'm not an economist though, so I'm sure it's a huge over simplification.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- asdlfj2sd33 17y agoIt's like giving a skydiver a winged suit, so that if his chute fails he can at least glide sideways and down instead of falling straight down, perhaps he can make it to water. I agree with the shovel metaphor when it comes to the attempts to raise house prices and prop up the financial sector. It's too bad that was such a big part of the stimulus and other investment like infrastructure was such a small one.