Stimulus

[poker king46]

has anyone seen anything good come from the stimulus package?because i haven't,its been too much spending and not enough stimulus.Ben stein(spell check?) once said that if a few of today's leading economists went on the news and told the American people that in 12 months the recession would be over it actually would be because people would start spending a little more which in turn would actually fix the economy.

P.S i'm sorry if my speling and grammer are off.

 

[CassinoChips]

The $581 that ended up in my bank account was a great outcome of the stimulus package. That's rent and half a car payment.

I think it was good for what it was, which was a shot in the arm for the economy that would temporarily stave off a complete crash and burn of consumerism. The problem was that it wasn't used what it was intended for. I think the Bush administration meant the money to be disposable income to be used for extra stuff, (video games, clothes, movies, concert tickets, etc.) but when you're a lower- to upper middle-class family, $600 is going to pay bills and/or buy groceries. And that's essentially a black hole with no return on the economy as such.

So, to sum up, good for what it was, but poorly thought out and implemented.

 

[Serah]

Extra $581? We haven't even gotten anything in regards to the stimulus...o_o I thought that this year's stimulus package was going to result in less taxes being taken out on our paychecks.

 

[Estella Vanilla]

581 dollars is chump change. It's not good enough to fix anything. For the amount of money he spent on that stimulus package we could have each had thousands of dollars to invest as WE chose to which would have stimulated the economy just fine. Some people would put it in the banks, some people would spend it, some people would go on vacations, others would buy cars.

Look, I don't want to pay for the removal of gang member tattoos. IMO they can go fuck themselves with a steel pipe. Excuse my language this topic gets me angry. x_x

History tells us recessions last for about 10 years, not 1. They say it'll get better but they have no idea if it will or not. Not to mention we might have hyperinflation due to all the money he's printing.

I'm just going to quit while I'm ahead. x_x I don't believe that the way to get us out of debt is to spend more money.

(BTW, I didn't like Bush either so it's not a democrat/republican thing)

 

[Rockman X]

The $581 that ended up in my bank account was a great outcome of the stimulus package. That's rent and half a car payment.

Oh wow, people are getting checks for $581, that's reeeeally gonna help. Whoopee, it helps with payments for one month. After that? You're back to being screwed. It's throwing money away because it's not actually HELPING people, it's only postponing the inevitable.

The problem was that it wasn't used what it was intended for. I think the Bush administration meant the money to be disposable income to be used for extra stuff, (video games, clothes, movies, concert tickets, etc.) but when you're a lower- to upper middle-class family, $600 is going to pay bills and/or buy groceries. And that's essentially a black hole with no return on the economy as such.

The Bush administration tried that a year ago or so, when they sent out checks to lots of people so that they'd go shopping with the money. That was retarded. Everyone put the money in their savings accounts and didn't spend it...if they wanted to ensure that it was spent, they woulda done the smart thing and handed out prepaid debit cards that people HAVE to spend.

Bush then tried giving money to the banks and AGAIN was a complete idiot about it, because he didn't give them any stipulations about it, no credibility, nothing, so all the CEOs just pocketed the shit. The one thing Obama has done right in regards to this is telling Chrysler and GM to go fuck themselves when they recently begged for another handout; he essentially told them "merge with another company or die." He should have done it to begin with. Fuck the union workers losing their jobs, it's partly their fault the car companies were in such deep shit to begin with, begging for $70 an hour and higher just for standing around on production lines. Of course that wouldn't be an issue if people actually bought American cars, but no, they're cheaply made and nobody wants to buy crap with planned obsolescence. You can't keep paying such high wages to your greedy workers when you're not selling your shoddy products.

We have a Nissan plant around here and they're non-union, only pay $40 or so an hour, but they have great benefits and the workers are happy. That's why so many foreign car companies are looking to build plants in the southern states, no unions driving up wages.

And now we get Mr. Obama, who gave more money to the banks and car companies and DID put stipulations on it...but he's still handing out tons of money. He shoulda told the car companies to go fuck themselves to begin with, just let them go into bankruptcy.

581 dollars is chump change. It's not good enough to fix anything. For the amount of money he spent on that stimulus package we could have each had thousands of dollars to invest as WE chose to which would have stimulated the economy just fine. Some people would put it in the banks, some people would spend it, some people would go on vacations, others would buy cars.

Common sense would dictate that HMM, ECONOMY IS IN TROUBLE, NOBODY IS BUYING ANYTHING...HAY I NOE, GIVE PEOPLE MONEY TO GO OUT AND BUY THINGS.

But no. Instead we give banks and other companies the money and they don't do anything with it but fill their own pockets. GEE WE'LL GIVE THE BANKS THE MONEY SO THEY CAN PAY OF PEOPLE'S MORTGAGES! Well how's that working out for ya? Oh yeah, that's right, they're not paying off anyone's mortgages, they're stealing the money.

History tells us recessions last for about 10 years, not 1. They say it'll get better but they have no idea if it will or not. Not to mention we might have hyperinflation due to all the money he's printing.

Obama had to make it sound like our country was on the brink of doomsday to get everyone to pass his stimulus...and because he did that everyone freaked out and it just made things worse, so now he's trying to make it sound like it'll be over in a year or two so people will stop panicking and buy things.

I'm just going to quit while I'm ahead. x_x I don't believe that the way to get us out of debt is to spend more money.

I doubt we'll ever get out of it. We were trillions in debt before Obama came into office, now we'll be in even bigger debt...and the funny thing is, we have nothing backing our money. It might as well be Monopoly money, it isn't worth jack shit. No gold, no silver backing it, nothing. Oh sure, we got Ft. Knox. Whoop de do. That's paltry compared to what we owe.

We need to go back to making salt a valuable commodity like the ancient Romans did, everyone has salt

 

[poker king46]

estella vanilla-you do know that the economy is partly psychological right?and that if economists that the people trust told them that it'd be over in a year (because I'm quite sure that the recession didn't start just a few weeks ago) then people would relax their grip on their money(like i said earlier)

 

[Estella Vanilla]

estella vanilla-you do know that the economy is partly psychological right?and that if economists that the people trust told them that it'd be over in a year (because I'm quite sure that the recession didn't start just a few weeks ago) then people would relax their grip on their money(like i said earlier)

I also know how Obama presented the Stimulus Bill as OMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE NO ONE READ IT! SIGN IT RIGHT NOW! So people signed it, like morons, without reading it. Then the economy dropped even more and now he's pretending like OHHH THINGS ARE LOOKING UP! After he scared the shit out of everyone. Ridiculous.

It's shown in the past that things don't get better in a year, but ten. That was my point.

 

[Rockman X]

estella vanilla-you do know that the economy is partly psychological right?and that if economists that the people trust told them that it'd be over in a year (because I'm quite sure that the recession didn't start just a few weeks ago) then people would relax their grip on their money(like i said earlier)

1. You don't know how to quote do you?

2. Are you serious? You actually believe the recession didn't start till a few weeks ago? Sure part of the economy is psychological, Wall Street is practically run on fear and the basis of flimsy predictions, but to be in such denial of the state of things is downright foolish. You can't just say "OH HEY THINGS ARE BETTER!" and suddenly they are (especially since we have NOTHING backing our money, as I said in my last post). Obviously it would help the economy if people went out and spent money, but there is no possible way that everything could be fixed in a single year, it's going to take decades because of the massive amount of debt that we've accumulated.

I still can't believe you think this could be over in a year.

 

[Donald Trump]

estella vanilla-you do know that the economy is partly psychological right?and that if economists that the people trust told them that it'd be over in a year (because I'm quite sure that the recession didn't start just a few weeks ago) then people would relax their grip on their money(like i said earlier)

It's an interesting theory, and I think that to a certain extent it's true, people do what they're told. However a free market is cyclical, peaks and troughs, recessions are part of its nature. Economics works on a basic psychology anyway, that's why interest rates are lowered to encourage spending. The stimulus is supposed to be Keynesian, which means government money to create jobs, Keynes/FDR did it through construction. Hitler building the autobanh is an example. It bails out US car manufactureres, whose problems aren't so much to do with a depression, but poor practices. It's unlikely that it will work, the new deal didn't either.

 

[ActionBastard]

Regardless of the turn in the economy; the stimulus itself was a terrible idea for the exact reason Captain Cassino already stated. Elder folks remember what happened around the 30's for the GD, so they're just saving the money in their homes somewhere. Middle-aged folks are just paying off bills and other necessary expenses. The younger crowd might be frivolous about it, but it's not like they're going to pay any more than the money they were given. All this "stimulus" will do is cycle the money that it put out; and leave out the money that was given to nervous elderly.

 

[Estella Vanilla]

Regardless of the turn in the economy; the stimulus itself was a terrible idea for the exact reason Captain Cassino already stated. Elder folks remember what happened around the 30's for the GD, so they're just saving the money in their homes somewhere. Middle-aged folks are just paying off bills and other necessary expenses. The younger crowd might be frivolous about it, but it's not like they're going to pay any more than the money they were given. All this "stimulus" will do is cycle the money that it put out; and leave out the money that was given to nervous elderly.

lolwut I'm afraid I do not understand. Could you perhaps please clarify and elaborate upon this? :dave:
Mod edit: slightly more effort in future ect.

 

[poker king46]

rockman:i do know how to quote i'm just too lazy to actually do it,and i did NOT say that the recession started a few weeks ago as a matter of fact i said the opposite.and i'm not the one who thinks it 100% i think its possible but people need to spend as thats onw of the things oiur economy relies upon if not the only thing.people spend and things get sold out thus creating a higher demand.higher demand=suppliers making more of their product and thus creating a need for more jobs/to expand thus turning the economy around.

 

[Rockman X]

Regardless of the turn in the economy; the stimulus itself was a terrible idea for the exact reason Captain Cassino already stated. Elder folks remember what happened around the 30's for the GD, so they're just saving the money in their homes somewhere. Middle-aged folks are just paying off bills and other necessary expenses. The younger crowd might be frivolous about it, but it's not like they're going to pay any more than the money they were given. All this "stimulus" will do is cycle the money that it put out; and leave out the money that was given to nervous elderly.

Um...what? No seriously, what in the world are you trying to say?

rockman:i do know how to quote i'm just too lazy to actually do it,and i did NOT say that the recession started a few weeks ago as a matter of fact i said the opposite.and i'm not the one who thinks it 100% i think its possible but people need to spend as thats onw of the things oiur economy relies upon if not the only thing.people spend and things get sold out thus creating a higher demand.higher demand=suppliers making more of their product and thus creating a need for more jobs/to expand thus turning the economy around.

Ah, you're right, I misread what you said since the sentence was worded awkwardly, I apologize.

Seems that you're not just too lazy to quote though, you're too lazy to use paragraphs, grammar and punctuation as well...not such a good thing when you're trying to debate a point and need to have a legible, intelligent-looking post :/

Now, I agree with you that people need to spend. However, there's one little problem: people don't have the money to spend. People are losing their jobs left and right, credit rates are spiking, and most people simply can't afford the luxury of spending frivolously like they could a couple years ago.

As for creating jobs, I'm hoping that Obama will get around to putting all his little green energy programs into place and starting his other projects like fixing our infrastructure. We don't need billions spent in stimulus money, it's not helping a damn thing. What we need is for him to stop visiting foreign dignitaries and to create these new jobs he keeps talking about. During the Great Depression national parks were started and created alot of jobs, we need something like that again. He can get these new jobs rolling, THEN take trips around the world making new friends. We need to rebuild our relationship with the world, sure, but we need new jobs first.

 

[Loveless]

Now, I agree with you that people need to spend. However, there's one little problem: people don't have the money to spend. People are losing their jobs left and right, credit rates are spiking, and most people simply can't afford the luxury of spending frivolously like they could a couple years ago.

As for creating jobs, I'm hoping that Obama will get around to putting all his little green energy programs into place and starting his other projects like fixing our infrastructure. We don't need billions spent in stimulus money, it's not helping a damn thing. What we need is for him to stop visiting foreign dignitaries and to create these new jobs he keeps talking about. During the Great Depression national parks were started and created alot of jobs, we need something like that again. He can get these new jobs rolling, THEN take trips around the world making new friends. We need to rebuild our relationship with the world, sure, but we need new jobs first.

Yeah i agree with that, if I'm not mistaken he's trying to create a few million jobs into the green industry for solar and wind. Although I do believe that he should be going around the world and talking to foreign leaders. America has given itself a bad reputation for being snobby when it comes to finance and independance since we actually rely on other countries for our economy. I do believe however that the media should stop focusing it's attention on how other countries are governing themselves and instead focus on how we can fix our own country. As for as the stimulus goes i think that it's helping but slowly. Obama and a couple of other higher ups said that our economy has to get worst before it gets better but our stock market isn't as crappy as it was last summer so hopefully it's getting better. I just wish our stimulus hadn't been wasted on crap company leaders like those in AIG.

 

[Mitsuki]

No, I don't think the stimulus check is helping, even if slowly, because as Rockman said, all it does is prevent the inevitable. I mean sure, extra free money handed to you will get anyone excited and declare, "Oh this will help a lot, thanks!" (and I'm sure it probably did help some out there with their bills, but only temporarily) but after seeing that there is really no improvement done, it really isn't worth it. What we need is new jobs created, help the housing market, lower interest rates in credit cards and other financing programs, and just don't make everything so damn expensive. It'll give people a chance to accumulate their own money, because God knows we need it. I mean some people can't even save up because there are other demands we must attend to.

And look at California. They just doubled the registration fees for cars. It cost us about $250 dollars in addition to the registration fees just because our Dodge Ram 1500 (which we bought in Ohio, therefore is considered an out-of-state vehicle) is over 5,000 pounds. It's so stupid. They have so many additional and unnecessary fees tacked on to the whole registration of vehicles, such as a weight certificate, processing fees, etc. For 4 months we couldn't even register our truck to the state because the government shut down the DMV weight station, but then there's the DMV saying "Well you have to get a weight certificate to register your vehicle". Well whoopsie doo, fuckers. What the hell were we supposed to do then? Get a ticket for not having our vehicle registered?

Fortunately we finally did it at a storage place for a cheap price of $15 (after some thorough search on the internet) a few weeks ago and at first the DMV told us that we couldn't do it there, but when we spoke to the people at the storage place, they said that it DOES go through the DMV. Stupid DMV just wanted us to use their own branch weight station so they can charge quadruple the fee. ($60).

Stupid fees should just go away and die. I don't mind fees that are actually necessary to get businesses running, but there are so many stupid fees out there and it's definitely not helping the people. They increase taxes in fees yet take away jobs. And hello, the economy's already in trouble. Again, what do they expect the people to do in times like this? Be a pawn and spend stimulus money that we may be taxed on for later? No thanks.

They really need to get a hold of those banks and corporations that have been ripping off the American people for so long.

 

[Estella Vanilla]

They really need to get a hold of those banks and corporations that have been ripping off the American people for so long.

You really believe that the government has the best intentions? I mean...my gosh it would be just awful if you had government controlling all the banks and businesses. Then it would control who and who does not get employed, and dictate what we do with our lives. I can't even begin to find the words to talk about that...goodbye American dream. =P

 

[Rockman X]

Although I do believe that he should be going around the world and talking to foreign leaders. America has given itself a bad reputation for being snobby when it comes to finance and independance since we actually rely on other countries for our economy.

Oh don't get me wrong, I know we need to be making friends. Bush ruined our reputation and pissed off the world, we need to fix all that. But I think our economy should come before that. If Obama would just set up these programs or find people to set them up for him, then I wouldn't care if he went to other countries. But so far he hasn't done anything, and he barely mentions his new programs, it's just "stimulus this, foreign dignitary that."

And look at California. They just doubled the registration fees for cars. It cost us about $250 dollars in addition to the registration fees just because our Dodge Ram 1500 (which we bought in Ohio, therefore is considered an out-of-state vehicle) is over 5,000 pounds. It's so stupid. They have so many additional and unnecessary fees tacked on to the whole registration of vehicles, such as a weight certificate, processing fees, etc. For 4 months we couldn't even register our truck to the state because the government shut down the DMV weight station, but then there's the DMV saying "Well you have to get a weight certificate to register your vehicle". Well whoopsie doo, fuckers. What the hell were we supposed to do then? Get a ticket for not having our vehicle registered?

Wut. That's just ridiculous, I'm glad I don't live there x__x

Again, what do they expect the people to do in times like this? Be a pawn and spend stimulus money that we may be taxed on for later? No thanks.

Pfft, we don't even have the stimulus money to spend, it's all being pocketed by CEOs. But we're still going to paying taxes on it for decades to come anyway.

They really need to get a hold of those banks and corporations that have been ripping off the American people for so long.

I don't trust the government any more than I do with the banks. I mean hell, look at how the government is willing to throw billions of dollars around like nothing, I wouldn't want them controlling banks and corporations. Stiffer regulations, maybe...like just keep a closer eye on banks, make them more accountable, make sure their practices aren't so crooked, but not total control.

You really believe that the government has the best intentions? I mean...my gosh it would be just awful if you had government controlling all the banks and businesses. Then it would control who and who does not get employed, and dictate what we do with our lives. I can't even begin to find the words to talk about that...goodbye American dream. =P

I guess it would be something akin to the IRS running everything. Good god that would be a nightmare.

 

[Mitsuki]

You really believe that the government has the best intentions? I mean...my gosh it would be just awful if you had government controlling all the banks and businesses. Then it would control who and who does not get employed, and dictate what we do with our lives. I can't even begin to find the words to talk about that...goodbye American dream. =P

I don't trust the government any more than I do with the banks. I mean hell, look at how the government is willing to throw billions of dollars around like nothing, I wouldn't want them controlling banks and corporations. Stiffer regulations, maybe...like just keep a closer eye on banks, make them more accountable, make sure their practices aren't so crooked, but not total control

Oh I didn't mean that they should control them, hell no. >.> I don't trust the government either, no more than I trust the pedophile that used to live across our street back in Ohio. Sorry, I probably worded that in the worst way possible. What I meant is related to what the banks did, pocketing the money that was handed to them...get me? That's what I meant by 'get a hold of' those idiots and keep careful watch on them - to hold them accountable for what they did - not in any form of the government taking control, because as you said, 'Goodbye American dream'.

 

[Loveless]

Oh don't get me wrong, I know we need to be making friends. Bush ruined our reputation and pissed off the world, we need to fix all that. But I think our economy should come before that. If Obama would just set up these programs or find people to set them up for him, then I wouldn't care if he went to other countries. But so far he hasn't done anything, and he barely mentions his new programs, it's just "stimulus this, foreign dignitary that."

I didn't mean anything by it, i actually agree with you Although i am an Obama fan i think that he made quite a few mistakes, i actually don't like the massive amount of money going into the auto industry. (Although i'm being biased because i think we should invest in making our country green)

Oh I didn't mean that they should control them, hell no. >.> I don't trust the government either, no more than I trust the pedophile that used to live across our street back in Ohio. Sorry, I probably worded that in the worst way possible. What I meant is related to what the banks did, pocketing the money that was handed to them...get me? That's what I meant by 'get a hold of' those idiots and keep careful watch on them - to hold them accountable for what they did - not in any form of the government taking control, because as you said, 'Goodbye American dream'.

I agree with you, the government doesn't need to overtake the banks but i think it is a good idea for uncle sam to at least check up on how money is being dealt with especially since our economy is so messed up right now

 

[Nalaar]

Stimulis: Commonly referred to as " A manner by which we break even when we plan to conveniently misplace something of ma$$ive importance in the near future." by the people who own the company owners who print the money. xObamax, our new teleprompter reader, does not even own "the floor"...when they allegedly hand it to him as ground to stand on....



"BGBLLBGLLLLLLPHSSS..." : The airplane noise a mommy makes when feeding the baby Gerber Pease

$581: Gerber Pease

Its what remains when we put on our uniforms, get to our cubicles and move the gigantic ass decimal to where they need it.