Unfortunately, it's not even half-baked:The Obama administration has apparently revealed its recipe for economic recovery. Based on the rhetoric and policy proposals fronted thus far, the recipe appears as follows:
- Do everything possible to discourage potential high-value executives from working in troubled industries by capping executive pay in struggling industries.
- Eliminate high-powered market-based incentives for mid-level employees to perform their jobs well.
- Encourage distressed companies to renege on long-term contracts that populist politicians find offensive (or consider easy to target so as to appear they are being responsible with taxpayers’ money).
- Dole out a trillion dollars of taxpayer funds to pet projects and interest groups in the name of “economic stimulus” (enabled by the perception of “responsibility” created by their railing against the targets of #1-3).
- Ignore the economic consequences of the incentives created (or destroyed) in #1-3 as well as the fact that someone at some point will have to pay that trillion dollar bill.
- Half-bake under the heat of political pressure and serve to the masses who are starved for quick-fix solutions that only impose costs on “that other guy” or “the rich fat-cats of corporate America.”
I don’t know about you, but I think it will be interesting to see how quickly the soufflé crashes . . . though I’m not looking forward to it being force-fed.
Indeed.
2 comments:
All those who criticize the plan have a responsibility to suggest an alternative. If one believes that we should do nothing, then that deserves to be placed as an alternative and defended.
As for the cap on executive pay for those receiving govt bailout funds, I say this: not only does this make sense, but where are these so called "high value executives?" The current crop of "high value executives" sure ran their companies into the ground, so if we lose them, we don't lose much.
Why should all the other workers in America be asked to sacrifice, except for these people?
Capitalism is supposed to be about rewarding success and not rewarding failure, but these executives have circumvented the system, and thus receive lavish rewards regardless, even if their companies fail.
It's amazing to me that many of the same people bash unions for trying to get their workers a decent wage plus benefits, but actually defend these multi million dollar payouts to over-priced executives.
Let's also face another reality: these executive compensation packages only gave huge incentives to these execs to take the massive risks that they did with their companies, and thus make the problem far worse.
These ridiculously high salaries are not a product of capitalism, but a perversion of it.
Somehow I think we'll survive if these "high value executives" don't make quite so much money.
As for pet projects being the focus of the stimulus, that is if you define pet projects as basic things like roads, bridges, broadband, healthcare, schools, etc. The vast majority of these so called "pet projects" will do more good for the people than has been done in the past 8 years.
It's funny that the critics of the bill cannot really name a lot of projects to criticize, and when they do, it is easily proven that these projects have useful value.
But that's the problem with modern conservativism, and why it deserves to die. There's no balance in perspective, and a reprehensible propensity to deceive among Republican leadership. All govt spending outside of defense is to be ridiculed, while infrastructure rots and the country falls farther behind other nations in developing a truly 21st century economy.
The Republicans are no longer a serious party with serious ideas; only a blind faith in their version of a free market, which isn't even a truly free market, but one tilted towards the wealthy.
I'll take my chances with the souffle, thank you very much.
Wow. Enjoy your souffle.
I'm very much a layman and this spending bill quite simply stinks to me if only for the following reasons:
- It hasn't been fully read by anyone voting for it (at least not with comprehension) and is being pushed through quickly as if waiting one week or two will cause the entire market to shatter
- The market doesn't seem to be reacting well to it
- While many are demanding people defend their criticisms of the plan, I see few people able to articulate where the money is going or why those expenditures are a good thing
- I see no one talking about how this will affect the value of the dollar. From what little I understand of this we've essentially cut the dollar by 1/3 with this move - which is unfunded but simply involves printing more money.
- There are no specific goals being set. This is the equivalent of handing every American about $3000. That doesn't sit well with me as a swag number. If we're debt-spending that much money we should be seeing some very targeted, specific tactics in how that money goes out.
- There is enough stated evidence around to show that this, like many bills in Washington, has degenerated into a spending free-for-all. The largest ever.
Your views are your own and you are certainly entitled to them.... but they're one-sided, short-sighted and dead-wrong.
This bill needs to be struck dead and both sides need to actually do something productive, not reactionary.
But if blind faith in an anything-but-conservative-free-market solution is your deal, you'll probably be glad to know it looks to be headed that way.
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