Stimulus

Hindsight tells us that economic stimulus has not worked. Canada's parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page, says that his report shows that stimulus was not very good at job creation. We need look no further than our own little city to see just how that works. We have a city council under pressure to hold the line on spending so a frill like a brand spanking new water park to keep the little kids cool on a hot day in the park is not high on the priority list. Sure, it would be nice, but the pot holes in the roads need fixin' first. Then along comes federal stimulus and voila, we get the hi tech new water park. We also get not one but two new overpasses taking people and cars from one side of the Trans Canada Highway to the other.

Yes, all of these projects created jobs, but when the project was done, so was the job. Now we have new overpasses, but fewer working people who need to get from one side of the freeway to other to get to a job they don't have. And one parks worker gets to turn the tap off and on at the water park. But, he did that at the old park too.  

To make stimulus work, the projects should have been ones that create on going jobs. How about a tourist facility, or a manufacturing plant of some kind, or a training facility for agriculture workers, etc. Then when the project is completed, there are workers still working.

It is even worse in the USA where so very much of the billions in stimulus went to bail out banks, who to this day are sitting on the money.

The economy will work out its kinks if left to its own devices. These interventionist moves by government just delay the inevitable. We need a correction and it is happening, but we are slowing it down by interfering. 

Obviously, me writing about it does not make a bit of difference.