Neither a fool nor a fool be

[bladedante]

Governments writing checks to citizens is generally a bad idea, in my opinion. It hasn't worked too well historically

Comments

[hecksheri]

I am thinking this whole economic stimulus package is making those with the real power to improve our economy too nervous to do so.

I also think that since most everyone is going to take their check and something foreign with it, that this is going to do more for the foreign economy than it is for ours.

It's a feel good package...an expensive shot of morphine so we can ignore the real damage...expensive pointless foreign war...foreclosures up another 75%...no problem, here, take this, it'll make you feel better while everything burns. That's right fools, look at the pretty fire. ooooo fire pretty.

[bladedante]

Fire is pretty, though. Can't argue with that.

Gonna go off on a wild tangent here...hope you don't mind

[hecksheri]

You have no idea how pretty fire can be. When it gets so hot that the smoke starts to burn...good god that is the prettiest thing I have ever seen in my life. It will melt the top of your fire helmet if you don't crawl low enough, but it is fucking spectacular. I have only seen it in a controlled situation during training...one guy stood up too high and melted the fuck out of his helmet. Had I seen it in a regular fire, I'd have had about 1 second to jump out of a window or I'd be dead right now. You can't film it. The only way to see it is to create it over a lower pit where firefighters can lay with full protective gear on air with access to a lever to vent just enough heat so that only the smoke over your head burns. They do this so firefighters will know what it looks like right before flashover and will therefore know to run. The temperature at which smoke bursts into flame is around 1100F. A poorly ventilated room on fire...even if it's just a sofa or drapes or something on fire, can go to flashover in less than 5

Re: Gonna go off on a wild tangent here...hope you don't mind

[hecksheri]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKPfkrGDv7U&feature=related

[anachronus]

The "stimulus package" is just a massive vote buying scheme. It changes nothing. Keep the tax cuts and slice government spending to see a real solution. There is no way that former will be done as it has been demagouged to death as "tax cuts for the rich" and the latter...well don't make me laugh. In a climate where a decrease in the rate of growth in a program is bemoaned as a drastic cut back it will never happen.

"If they had one neck I'd hack it through"....Some times I think Little Boots had the right idea.

Pax,
A.

[hecksheri]

Sometimes when I hear economists talking I wonder if they have substituted crayons for numbers. They try to make it sound like high magic, but to me they just sound dumb. Could be my lack of background in economics, could be my smarts interfering with my ability to swallow whole the big smelly rats politicians are always trying to pass of as nice juicy steak. Could be both. Call me old fashioned, but I just can't see how more debt can be good. In my effort to understand their thinking I found the following

[bladedante]

Hmmm, interesting you should mention him; I was just reading up on him last night. I have been reading the Belisarius Series by Drake (alternate history sci-fi type stuff) and it had piqued my interest in all things Roman.

[elpajaronegro]

Am I wrong, or we do not have a deficit already? How is sending a few hundred dollars to everyone really going to fix anything? $300 would be great for me right now, and would all be entirely spoken for immediately. In June it'll go into my savings account. The people who would most benefit from an infusion of extra cash probably won't qualify to receive it. It would be great if my taxes every year went down. I always end up having to pay a couple hundred bucks, and that's with a student loan deduction and having the maximum amount of taxes withdrawn from my paycheck.