THE economic stimulus thread

[Provost Harrison]

I presume you'll invest it in producing the world's first banana train. Or should that be teh world's first banana train.

[DanS]

Hookers and blow is not the stimulus we're looking for.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hookers, being relatively low income, would spend the money immediately. As would drug dealers. It's win-win.

[LordShiva]

Indeed, economic theory dictates that every dollar spent on hookers and blow returns $3 to teh economy (via teh HB multiplier effect).

[Kidlicious]

Take for example someone who gets the earned income credit. They will probably pay someone to prepare their return, and get a loan on it. That's 300 dollars or so. Then they will cash their check immediately through a check cashing place. That's already over 400 dollars that people with more money would spend and much faster. The more money you have the slower you spend extra money. It's pretty much a fact.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by DanS
Hookers and blow is not the stimulus we're looking for.

Hey, anything to keep the money here in the US is helpful. So spend your rebate on a hooker. But skip the drugs, those are bad(and most likely foreign).

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Take for example someone who gets the earned income credit. They will probably pay someone to prepare their return, and get a loan on it. That's 300 dollars or so. Then they will cash their check immediately through a check cashing place. That's already over 400 dollars that people with more money would spend and much faster. The more money you have the slower you spend extra money. It's pretty much a fact.

While I can understand where you are coming from on this I do not think that this has been the experience with government cheques like say the Alaska windfall monies paid each year to Alaska residents. The Alaska economy has a number of sales and a little flurry of economic activity each and every year when these cheques come out. It seems that a lot of people see these cheques as "additional" or "bonus" to their income and spend it immediately on little luxuries as a treat. THis seems to be true of most people even if they are making 100K plus as oil workers themselves.

I know we spent the $400 bonanza cheques that Alberta gave out last year-- For us it was a treat and a reason to buy something we probably would not have done otherwise.

Obviously this does not apply to a Bill Gates but I think for people up to incomes of a couple hundred K . . . if you toss them a totally unexpected pile of money . .. most will find a reason to spend it

How big will these rebates be ??

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Flubber


While I can understand where you are coming from on this I do not think that this has been the experience with government cheques like say the Alaska windfall monies paid each year to Alaska residents. The Alaska economy has a number of sales and a little flurry of economic activity each and every year when these cheques come out. It seems that a lot of people see these cheques as "additional" or "bonus" to their income and spend it immediately on little luxuries as a treat. THis seems to be true of most people even if they are making 100K plus as oil workers themselves.

I know we spent the $400 bonanza cheques that Alberta gave out last year-- For us it was a treat and a reason to buy something we probably would not have done otherwise.

Obviously this does not apply to a Bill Gates but I think for people up to incomes of a couple hundred K . . . if you toss them a totally unexpected pile of money . .. most will find a reason to spend it

How big will these rebates be ??

If Kid says "it's pretty much a fact," then it's pretty much a fact.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Whoha


Hey, anything to keep the money here in the US is helpful. So spend your rebate on a hooker. But skip the drugs, those are bad(and most likely foreign).

I don't know

A lot of hookers do drugs so your money could end up going to Colombia or Afghanistan ( egads supporting terrorism)

If you attempt to go 'higher class " there is still a decent chance of drugs but even more alarming if you see a high end courtesan, she may favor French fashions so your economic stimulus may actually end up supporting the French

[Flubber]

Originally posted by LordShiva


If Kid says "it's pretty much a fact," then it's pretty much a fact.

So Rent is a form of unfair taxation ???

And my employer is exploiting me by paying me much higher than government workers who make far less for doing similar work (but who are not in any way opressed or exploited)


Good to know

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Flubber


While I can understand where you are coming from on this I do not think that this has been the experience with government cheques like say the Alaska windfall monies paid each year to Alaska residents. The Alaska economy has a number of sales and a little flurry of economic activity each and every year when these cheques come out. It seems that a lot of people see these cheques as "additional" or "bonus" to their income and spend it immediately on little luxuries as a treat. THis seems to be true of most people even if they are making 100K plus as oil workers themselves.

I know we spent the $400 bonanza cheques that Alberta gave out last year-- For us it was a treat and a reason to buy something we probably would not have done otherwise.

Obviously this does not apply to a Bill Gates but I think for people up to incomes of a couple hundred K . . . if you toss them a totally unexpected pile of money . .. most will find a reason to spend it

How big will these rebates be ??

Why would you know this? I didn't even know that you lived in Alaska. I on the other hand am a tax preparer. I know how much money they make and how fast they spend it, because obviously if you are paying to get money faster you plan on spending it faster.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kidicious


Why would you know this? I didn't even know that you lived in Alaska.

Obviously I don't live in Alaska (Heck I know the capitals of a bunch of countries that I have never visited too-- The ability to read comes in quite handy)

When the windfall cheques were announced here in Alberta, the local paper did something like an 8 page feature on the Alaska payouts and the effect of them. I recall that local retailers would tailor sales pitches to the dividend-- If it was 1107 bucks there would be a tvs, sofas, trips etc all priced at exactly 1107. heck I believe most car dealers would have a "1107 down" offer for most of their vehicles. My recollection of the stories is that most people took advantage of such pitches. There were also a flurry of columns on the topic with many journalists mentioning Alaska while criticizing the funding of a shopping spree.

Originally posted by Kidicious


I on the other hand am a tax preparer. I know how much money they make and how fast they spend it, because obviously if you are paying to get money faster you plan on spending it faster.

Ok -- so the people that come to you want their money faster and pay a premium to get it faster

I, on the other hand would pay no such premium to get my money faster, but that doesn't change the fact that I fully intend to spend it. I just won't pay outrageous fees for the privilege of spending it faster (nor should anyone with ample available credit even if they want to spend now)

[Admiral]

I'm not actually convinced that stimulus packages ever work, because the time they are most effective is the time right before the recession starts, not when the package actually gets through Congress. But when you're coming up with who to target with the package, you want to target people who are most likely to spend the extra money, and spend it quickly. And Kidicious is more or less right about this one. Working class people will have fewer opportunities to save the extra money, and more incentive to spend it. So not directed the bulk of the package at the working class is poor economics.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Flubber
I, on the other hand would pay no such premium to get my money faster, but that doesn't change the fact that I fully intend to spend it. I just won't pay outrageous fees for the privilege of spending it faster (nor should anyone with ample available credit even if they want to spend now)

The fees are outrageous to you because the speed that the money gets to you isn't as important to you. Why? Because you don't need to spend it as fast.

Seriously, is that really so hard for you to understand? If you had two grown children and one was a doctor and the other worked for minimum wage, and you gave them both a thousand dollars which one would spend the money faster?

This is common sense.

[Lancer]

Lets get back to the hookers and blow for a moment. Lets say you go out and spend three hundred $ in this fashion. The hooker buys gum and pays the pimp, the dealer gets a new set of fuzzy dice for his el camino, as does the pimp. A week later your blow runs out and you find you need a fix. You hit your savings (pump more money into the economy) and get some more stuff. More fuzzy dice, (fuzzy dice manufacturers rebound) and some of those low rider shocks to trick out his ride. Gottra keep up with the pimp. Big $ into the system. Then your peckers burns when you go pee. You go to the doctor who sends you to the pharmacy, all big $ boosts for the economy. Then your lawyer calls and it seems you forgot to wear a rubber and the hooker is preggy, and do you by any chance know where to get some blow? So you sell him half yours for three times the price, go get the maternity test, more big bucks to be taxed. In the end you spend the rest of your life being chased by lawyers for child support and stealing purses to pay for blow, which employs cops. In time it all catches up with you and you enter the prison system and become Bubba's gf and cause the hiring of another guard. Your life is trashed but the economy picks up.

Bill Gates wouldn't have done any of that.