In a rational political and policy environment, the implication of all this [the fading economy] would be clear: we need more stimulus. Yes, it would add to federal debt — but isn’t that worth doing to help reduce an output gap that’s wasting our potential at the rate of more than a trillion dollars a year?
The “solution,” Krugman says, is for government to create more debt and print more money. Since he already publicly claims the printing of money creates a “free lunch,” he would approve of nearly any way the money appropriated by Congress would be spent, just as long as there is spending.
Lest anyone think the “stimulus” is spent wisely, think again. One building block of economic analysis is “utility theory” in which people rank their preferences from highest to lowest. For example, while I might want to take a vacation, it is more important that I spend my income first on my house payment, then food and other expenses that will support my family.
If there is money left over, perhaps then I can take my trip. Likewise, when we want governments to spend money on various projects, we assume that the most important items will be first in line. (One can make a case that just about all government spending is foolish and reckless, but for purposes of this article, I will assume that at least some government spending has social value.)
According to the promoters of the “stimulus,” the money has gone to hard-pressed states and localities to fill in the gaps caused by declining tax revenues. In some places this has meant that lower-valued projects have been abandoned or put on the back-burner, which fully reflects the human valuation process.
If the “stimulus” were about helping states and localities through hard times, the government would want them to spend it on the most-important projects, or perhaps even hold that money in reserve to ensure solvency through the recession. Instead, Congress has directed that money be spent on things that local and state governments would never consider to be priorities.
I have to do nothing more than drive to work to see this foolishness in action, as two “stimulus”-funded projects are in my backyard. I live in Garrett County, Maryland, and have to drive over Big Savage Mountain, a 3,000-foot-high ridge, to go to Frostburg State University, which is five miles east of my home. If I take U.S. 40 over the mountain, I often have to stop and wait for several minutes while work crews expand the drainage ditches along the steep road on the mountain’s east side.
If ever there were a make-work project, this is it. In the more than eight years I have lived in this area, I never have witnessed any problems caused by the old drainage ditches and there really did not seem to be any problems there caused by cascading storm water.
However, the other project on I-68 on the east side of Big Savage Mountain makes the drainage undertaking look to be fiscally sound. The interstate highway has a narrow median with a guardrail down the middle. This past week, drivers going east and west were shuttled into one lane to accommodate workers putting down rolls of new sod in the narrow median strip. If ever there were a worthless project, this was it – and even my children commented on its uselessness.
If these “stimulus”-funded undertakings are typical of what the Congress directed for states and localities, then the “leaders” of the U.S. government are even more delusional than I had imagined. Not only are they handing out money in a manner that imperils our future, but they also are demanding that it be spent on phantom things that intelligent people never would need in the first place.
This is not “change we can believe in.” This is government as usual.
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