Government By The Stupid, For The Stupid
The retards in charge in Washington just spent my money to send me a note to tell me something I already know (as does anybody not in a coma): that, very soon, we'll all effectively be getting a cash advance on a credit card -- one of the stupider financial moves a person can make.
Of course, it looked like one of those scam junk mail pieces. And it is a scam. As for all the people who are reacting with glee at the prospect of getting a $300 or $600 tax "rebate" -- as if it's free money -- they've failed to process where, exactly, that money is coming from.
This is...our money! Taxpayer dollars. They're throwing them back at us -- word has it, because it's supposed to stimulate the economy, keep us from going into a recession.
The problem is, we already have a ginormous national debt. I read that it grows $5,000 a second just in dollars to the Iraq war alone. And then there was the prescription drug bill Bush signed, and a bazillion other entitlements, past and new.
Hey, all you people who are so thrilled about the check soon to be in the mail: we're going to have to pay this money back, and with piles of interest.
Can we please get a few people who can do basic math in government?
Now, it's possible I'm just not a sophisticated enough thinker on economic issues, and this is a deceptively wise course of action.
But, on a personal level, if I had some vast pile of credit card debt, the last thing I'd be doing is taking out a cash advance on the ole Visa, hitting Vegas and trying to gamble my way out of it. Then again, I do call myself a fiscal conservative -- a creature rarer than the dodo these days.
Oh, and what's next? The goverment will tell us that the patriotic thing to do is to spend that money. Go out and buy a $600 handbag, or a Louis Vuitton car bra for the Lincoln Navigator you can't afford to gas up. Do it or...the terrorists win. Whoops, sorry...wrong message.
To me, this makes about as much economic sense as rewarding people who make risky investments by bailing them out when those investments fail.
The way I see it, if the government's going to give out cash prizes, it should be to people like me who pay off their credit card in full every month and save money by buying off-brand toner on eBay, and getting their clothes there, too -- "like new" instead of "new." That won't help Macy's...but, why is the fate of Macy's, or Bear Stearns, or any other business the problem of anybody but those who gambled on it, hoping it would pay off handsomely as an investment?
Sorry, I warned you I was kind of dim on the economics thingie.