Thoughts on economic stimulus.
A friend of mine who follows politics more closely than I do expressed his surprise that I hadn’t said anything here about the new economic stimulus package being bruited by the Congress. I promised him I’d explain my reasoning on stimulus in general, and why I haven’t talked about this round of it much.
- Macroeconomics is not my strong suit. It’s comforting for me to think I’m smarter than the average bear on the topic, but there’s enough diversity of opinion among the real economists and economic journalists that I doubt my voice would add much to the discussion.
- The political debates of the past year have left me feeling scorched. Partisanship in general repels me, and I have no wish to open this blog to politicized topics.
- In general, I subscribe to the notion that everyone becomes a Keynesian during a recession / depression. So we’re going to get some stimulus — and indeed, we already have. The question remains, What kind?
- If you feel strongly about your answer to that question, you could contact your member of Congress or your industry’s lobbying group.
- Otherwise, most of the businesspeople reading this blog would be better served to stick to their own knitting. While I absolutely do believe that government action affects the business climate for better and for worse, I also believe that in most cases it won’t affect your business nearly as much as your OWN efforts.
What do you think of my reasoning?
And, more importantly: What are YOU doing to provide stimulus to your OWN business?
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I’ll leave you with a tidbit from Benjamin Franklin — one I’ve quoted before:
The taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly, and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement.
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Image by Olaf, used under a CC-Share Alike license.
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3 Comments so far
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Oh crud,
Not another wise and well thought out blog I have to read! Nicely done – and love the Ben Franklin quote, which I have never heard before and should be Twittered from the rooftops (if only it were less than 140 words). The Founding Fathers sure fell short there, huh?!
Just my two cents worth, but it astonishes me that so many bloggers want to take on topics that they have no expertise in (hmmm… don’t read our blogs, ok!), especially political issues.
As a blogger I feel that I am a reporter of my topic (in our case Internet search strategies and online survival skills), not a genius on all issues. I’ve got just as many political views as the next person – but my Facebook page describes my political views as “Somewhere just east of Bimidji.” I think that’s appropriate for my topic of Internet research. Who cares whether I’m Left or Right, as long as I can teach them how to get to the information they need faster.
Nice, humble and refreshing approach you have, “It’s comforting for me to think I’m smarter than the average bear on the topic, but there’s enough diversity of opinion among the real economists and economic journalists that I doubt my voice would add much to the discussion.”
Thanks for the kind words, Michael — and sorry if I’ve added unduly to your reading load. ;)
One of the things I wrestle with in my own work is the difference between what’s *interesting* and what’s *relevant*. I have a journalist’s interest in all sorts of things . . . but most items that fit under such a broad umbrella don’t actually move the needle on my work — that is, they aren’t relevant. That’s what I thought of when I read your “just east of Bimidji” line. The important thing is to focus only on important things — not to talk about *everything* on which we might have opinions.
Cheers!
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