I know I shouldn’t be to surprised when the news nets let people speak crap without challenge, but I still am. The talk I’m seeing on television this morning centers on the idea that there is an ideological difference between the Republicans who oppose the stimulus package and the Democrats that support it. Obviously, there are many ideological differences between Dems and Republicans.
But this isn’t an ideological difference any more that arguing over the boiling temperature of water is. This is economics 101 and less, since I get it and I’ve never taken an economics class. ((Maybe I’ll pick one up when I go back to college, but that’s hardly the point.)) Basic economics says that you have supply on one side of the equation and you have demand on the other. When one goes away, the other side of the equation must balance out. Right now, demand is vapourizing in the face of a 7.6% unemployment rate which still doesn’t accurately reflect the total number of people who will be laid off based on the announcements of last week. People are scared shitless about their jobs and they should be, because the lack of demand necessarily precipitates a lack of supply which precipitates more layoffs.
And basic economics also says that when the people stop spending the money, the only thing that prevents a depression is the government spending money to compensate. It’s that simple. There’s no ideology in that statement, only time-tested economic theory of the most basic order.
It would be nice if someone in the mainstream media would do us all the favour of pointing that out.
