An ounce of prevention...

I see that many are hailing the President’s recent “tax rebate” as a brilliant stroke of financial daring-do. Those people, of course, are morons.

The US economy started to go south in February. Since then gasoline prices have gone up over 20% and inflation has already eroded much of the potential gain of such a “stimulus”. By summer, nobody will remember the money they got or what the hell they spent it on. The stimulus will be as effective as spitting in the ocean.

The idea behind this bold economic action is that people will essentially go out and “blow” the money on crap at Wal-Mart. This is truly an amazing concept to me; that the core economy of the largest economic power in the world is based on people mindlessly buying consumer crap. With dwindling world natural resources and stagnating wage growth, just exactly how sustainable is that?

Independent analysts believe that roughly the same percentage of people who DIDN’T vote for George Bush will put their tax rebate into reducing their personal debt. Of course, it is then assumed that shoppers, with now lower credit card balances, will run back out the following months and rack up more debt. They are probably right. I have low expectations of most of Moron America, and seldom do they fail to meet them.

Of course people can create their own personal economic stimulus package simply by grabbing their credit card and spending more money they don’t have anyway. That is exactly what the Bush administration is proposing anyway; except he’s using the US Treasury’s Master Card to help us all relieve a little pent-up consumer demand.

Hey, our national budget deficit is now already the largest ever in our history; so what’s the harm in racking up a little more national debt? Either way, whether you pull the money from the US Treasury or your credit card, it’s all eventually going to have to be paid back. Take your pick, monthly installment payments or higher taxes.

So whether you receive $300, $600 or ever $1,200 in economic aid, just remember, $165,000,000,000 has just been added to our tax bill. Oh well, you could always just make the minimum payment.

Try to smile: Dave Barry’s FAQ on the Economic Stimulus Payment