Stimulus
So, the Stimulus has passed. Almost 800 Billion dollars. That is more than enough to stimulate me. Heck, if I could get my hands on 40K I could be totally out of debt (including mortgage) and could then devote my income to stimulating the rest of the economy. Come on Pres, bail me out! Consider me a long term investment.
Actually I was amused when I heard the President countering Charges that his stimulus bill was just a spending bill. He said something like Spending is stimulus! (Which is true IF you spend the money the right way) but what amused me was the it seems spending is only stimulus if the government is doing it. God knows it wasn’t stimulus when Citibank was going to pay many millions of dollars for the airplane they had ordered several years ago and which was being delivered to them. No, that was wasteful. Now I am not certain what kind of airplane it was but I would be willing to lay odds it was either a Gulfstream or a Cessna Citation. Both of which are made in the US and employ a great many people in Georgia and Kansas. (If I remember correctly) What? The guys who build corporate jets don’t deserve their jobs? They need to be as unemployed as those RV builders in Elkhart Indiana are? So now the plane manufacturer is left with a multi million dollar airplane that they have to try and find a buyer for. I suspect they will eventually, probably some Arab oil sheik or , more likely, the US Federal Government which will fly politicians around in it, but for now they are left with a big hunk of unsold inventory that they can thank Congress and the Press for. BUT WAIT! The people cry, they were buying with TAXPAYER MONEY after getting a bailout from the TARP program. So what? The Government is spending taxpayer money to buy stuff and stimulate the economy. So what if it is filtered through Citibank first. It would be keeping a bunch of people I know employed if that jet were a Gulfstream. I’m in favor of that. Besides which, corporate jets actually make economic sense. I will think back to when I worked at a small municipal airport and we used to get corporate jets from Wal-Mart flying in a lot. There would be some meeting at the distribution center. A plane would land and offload 6-10 people who would rush off to their meeting, return in two or three hours, get on the plane and fly off to another meeting at a different distribution center. They would hit three or four of them in a day. (I know this because I talked to the pilots while they were waiting.) This kind of work would be impossible if they were flying commercial airlines. Just think of how much time they would be wasting (and remember, time is money) if they had to go to the airport, spend a couple of hours going through security and all that hogwash, then riding from whatever commercial airport is closest the distribution center then back to wait for the next flight to where ever, not including the number of times they would have to change planes in Atlanta. (You damn near can’t fly anywhere around the south without changing planes in Atlanta) Corporate planes make economic sense. They save the companies money. They are also injecting money into local economies by buying fuel, meals, etc. in the areas they land. So this hullabaloo about them is nothing but posturing on the part of the politicians, class baiting on the part of the Left, and ignorance on the part of the common masses.
I also love the way they say they are channeling tax cuts/refunds toward the poorer people because these people are more likely to go out and spend the money on stuff instead of paying down debt of saving it. To translate that into common speech, they are giving the money to people who are too stupid to try and get out from under their debts but will instead blow the money on some expendable consumer products.
Way to go congress. Gotta love it.
Actually I was amused when I heard the President countering Charges that his stimulus bill was just a spending bill. He said something like Spending is stimulus! (Which is true IF you spend the money the right way) but what amused me was the it seems spending is only stimulus if the government is doing it. God knows it wasn’t stimulus when Citibank was going to pay many millions of dollars for the airplane they had ordered several years ago and which was being delivered to them. No, that was wasteful. Now I am not certain what kind of airplane it was but I would be willing to lay odds it was either a Gulfstream or a Cessna Citation. Both of which are made in the US and employ a great many people in Georgia and Kansas. (If I remember correctly) What? The guys who build corporate jets don’t deserve their jobs? They need to be as unemployed as those RV builders in Elkhart Indiana are? So now the plane manufacturer is left with a multi million dollar airplane that they have to try and find a buyer for. I suspect they will eventually, probably some Arab oil sheik or , more likely, the US Federal Government which will fly politicians around in it, but for now they are left with a big hunk of unsold inventory that they can thank Congress and the Press for. BUT WAIT! The people cry, they were buying with TAXPAYER MONEY after getting a bailout from the TARP program. So what? The Government is spending taxpayer money to buy stuff and stimulate the economy. So what if it is filtered through Citibank first. It would be keeping a bunch of people I know employed if that jet were a Gulfstream. I’m in favor of that. Besides which, corporate jets actually make economic sense. I will think back to when I worked at a small municipal airport and we used to get corporate jets from Wal-Mart flying in a lot. There would be some meeting at the distribution center. A plane would land and offload 6-10 people who would rush off to their meeting, return in two or three hours, get on the plane and fly off to another meeting at a different distribution center. They would hit three or four of them in a day. (I know this because I talked to the pilots while they were waiting.) This kind of work would be impossible if they were flying commercial airlines. Just think of how much time they would be wasting (and remember, time is money) if they had to go to the airport, spend a couple of hours going through security and all that hogwash, then riding from whatever commercial airport is closest the distribution center then back to wait for the next flight to where ever, not including the number of times they would have to change planes in Atlanta. (You damn near can’t fly anywhere around the south without changing planes in Atlanta) Corporate planes make economic sense. They save the companies money. They are also injecting money into local economies by buying fuel, meals, etc. in the areas they land. So this hullabaloo about them is nothing but posturing on the part of the politicians, class baiting on the part of the Left, and ignorance on the part of the common masses.
I also love the way they say they are channeling tax cuts/refunds toward the poorer people because these people are more likely to go out and spend the money on stuff instead of paying down debt of saving it. To translate that into common speech, they are giving the money to people who are too stupid to try and get out from under their debts but will instead blow the money on some expendable consumer products.
Way to go congress. Gotta love it.
posted by exMI | 06:25
7 Comments:
The jet Citi had ordered was from a French company so it is of little matter. They should have bought American.
Give money to the poor and they will spend it. Damn, you figured it out!
It was part of the German economic miracleback in the 30's - before the currency grew so fast you took your money to the store in a wheelbarrow.
Give it to the banks - who wrote the loans that were supervised so poorly that defaulting went through the roof - deregulation don'cha know - and I guarantee a stockholders' fiesta. The rest of us - will be left holding an empty bag.
I don't see why you blame people screwed by the system for the problem when the rich have been turning on the socialism tap so hard as to spend more than all these years in Iraq - funny contracts that weren't bid on or supervised included.
The poor would be affordable. The rich - have taken it all and more.
Ah, it was a Falcon then. Screw the French. They should have bought American. But the point is they would have made the same stupid arguments even if it had been an American made jet.
opit - I'm not really in favor of giving it to the banks. I am just amused that they are out and out admitting they want o give money to people because they consider that group of people to dumb to invest their money, or pay off debts instead of rushing to Wally world and spending it.
And we need to keep an eye on that German inflation as we print up trillions of dollars pay for the various stimulus programs.
Keep an eye on inflation.
What do you think the 'bailout' is ? I have to admit we've progressed : there is no longer any need even to have a physical substitute for currency, it's all hocus-pocus.
The numbers of accumulated debt are beyond belief.Who is the nation indebted to? The banks could have been bought outright for the amounts that are being thrown around.
What is wrong with the synopsis being tossed around - "Socialized risk and privatized profits" ? How big a screwing do you think the nation can take ?
I heard an interesting bit on the radio this morning explaining that the overall debt in the US is something like 14 times the total economy of the WORLD.
The guy talking (Juan Enriquez)was somewhat amazed that our plan to get out of our current problems was to borrow more money and get further in debt. I sympathize with his feelings.
I have actually quipped with an economist in the past. The 'rationale' of the system is so screwy it's not really fair to say they understand it. But yeah : that debt being multiples of what could ever be paid off is a definite mind-blower. Of course, it's no secret where the money goes - graft.Blue Girl had this one posted and I snaffled it. It's the only thing that makes sense of 'Nam,Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
Agreed. As for your last paragraph, just for the record, Yuppies are no better. They're all driving around enormous SUVs, have 2400 sq ft houses on a lot the size of a postage stamp, and wonder why they're 50k in credit card debt.
Post a Comment
<< Home