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I'm curious...does anyone think the stimulus checks will have a net positive effect on the economy, now and in the long term. As this money goes out, doesn’t it mean the Government (meaning us) continues to pay interest on that fraction of our current debt we didn’t pay off? What’s the true cost of this money?
If it stimulates the economy and generates more tax revenues I suppose it could offset that, but does anyone feel it will really do this.
What affect did the last stimulus payments have?
In California we already pay privately for music and art teachers in our public schools. This year we’re now being asked to privately pay to keep 10% of the teachers in our schools. That’s several thousand dollars on top of a $20K property tax. Perhaps the money could be better spent there?
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Because I really want my stimulus check, and want to spend it on something I'll personally enjoy, it's hard for me to be objective about it!
I think since most earners pay a pretty hefty tax to support the common good, a small break---having some of our own money returned to us for discretionary use, using how we choose, either wisely or foolishly, or however--is not a bad thing. Whether it's a good thing, on the large scale, is a good question. What kind of impact, if any, does it have on the economy? Or, as you asked, what affect did the last one have? If they're able to measure it, it would be interesting to see whether it had any measurable impact at all.
When we got our stimulus check last time, we made a conscious choice to spend it on a durable good. Not to use to pay off a debt, or to use for something perishable or temporary, but to buy a durable hardware item that we'd still have years later, that we could look back and connect with that check. we plan to do the same this time, actually put the money back into the economy, spend it on something we might not otherwise purchase. Then rationalize it by saying it's a patriotic act, good for the U.S. economy!
What did we buy? A "FrancisFrancis", an Italian espresso machine. I love it. It's served thousands and thousands of coffee beverages, it's in use DAILY. (did some of the money go back to the Italian economy instead of staying in the U.S.? If so, I conveniently overlooked that detail) We even nicknamed the espresso machine, in honor of the Commander in Chief. "GeorgeGeorge". The "George Walker Bush Memorial Espresso Machine".
This year my wife and I are going to divide in half, and each buy an item we want. I want to get an Apogee Duet. Something computer or music-related. Do the patriotic thing! Buy something durable, that you'll use every day! Stimulate yourself and the economy at the same time! It's your duty, as an American!
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No, I don't think it'll have any positive effect. It only adds to the national debt and most people will use it to load up on more imported Chinese products. It'll help their economy more than ours.
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My objection is that it makes it appear that the US Government has money lying around that they can give back to us whenever we seem to be feeling blue. To me, it is a Fairy Tale Fix to a problem, and not a solution or a reform. And it's funny to me that the people who complain about our Nanny Government don't seem to mind it at all.
Granted, I am glad to get the money. But I would be more glad if somebody would figure out how to make the government run leaner and meaner. And I don't mean by cutting out a social program, either. I think the govt could do everything it does now and maybe more at half the price if there was some serious ass-kicking to force the government to apply the same budgetary measures, cautions, and spending that so many other organizations can and do.
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I will invest mine because my material needs are met by my pay. There is no way I'm going to waste money out of some strange idea of patriotism.
Maybe my investment will pay out enough to cover the debt it generated.
Its like the talk of suspending the gas tax - its just bread and circuses.
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Stevie, are you confused about who's money it is?
Don, you disapprove of how workers use their earnings? God forbid they might buy something made in a foreign country. We can't have that. Better not let wage-earners have that money, we can't dictate what they do with it, we might not approve of their choice.
Mattkime, the reference to patriotism was in jest. But you knew that. Whether your ideas about how to spend money are "strange" or wise or foolish isn't really for any of us to say, is your choice, it's your earnings. You can spend it on lawn ornaments, or Dutch ceramics, or dollhouses, Samuri swords on eBay, or collecting rare coins. Or give it charity. Or spend it on booze. Or invest it. None of those things sound foolish or strange to me. I thought bread and circuses is when Republican and Democrats keep the money we earned and uses it on reckless or wasteful things, not when they return a fraction of it to the people who earned it.
If ya'll feel like it's just a Fairy Tale, and has no hope of a positive outcome, no real benefit to the economy (which might be true) you can take the envelope when it arrives, endorse it back to the Treasury and send it back.
Or send it to me! I'll invest it! We can use it to spruce up the lounge here, get a new coffee table, a cable news subscription, resupply the ammunition facility, and restock the Cokes and get a new ice machine in this joint. Or at least some light bulbs and paper towels.
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>>not when they return a fraction of it to the people who earned it.
...but thats not what they're doing. They have no money to return to us.
They're _borrowing_ it to give it to us. If there was no deficit and they were returning excess funds that would be completely different.
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[quote guitarist]Stevie, are you confused about who's money it is?
Well, it's not your money. Your money was pissed away long ago. This is money they borrowed to give you.
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You mean they SPENT the money we already gave them?
And now they have to borrow to pull off this scheme, too? That ain't right.
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