There’s been a lot of talk about the idea of a new economic stimulus. I freely admit that I am no expert on economics, and I like to believe that people smarter than me are making the right decisions. That said, I don’t know how I feel about the idea of another economic stimulus. First and foremost, the goverment’s got enough debt as it is – can it really be worth it to create a huge payout to the American people again? I definitely think that many people who received the stimulus didn’t need it. Sure, I enjoyed getting a $600 check, and I did end up stimulating the economy with it, but it was money I had already planned to spend (and one unplanned expense). I didn’t spend $600 more than I would have. Instead, $600 remained in my bank account.
That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy getting a $600 check. Come on, who doesn’t like free money?
I know that there are many people out there for whom the stimulus would be a blessing – people struggling to pay utility bills or make mortgage payments. And there are many families who are making ends meet but could really use some extra money for the holiday season.
But did the last stimulus really help? Isn’t it too soon to really know the full effects? Should we really be paying out another huge chunk of money?
Like I said, I’m no expert. I just don’t understand how another economic stimulus will provide long term benefits.
Thoughts?
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
An economic stimulus plan does not have to mean another check. In fact, I found it strange the first done did send out a check. What I believe the government is talking about now is stimulating the economy be creating jobs and investing in things such as infrastructure (long overdue). Sort of in the mentality of the “Great Society”.
I actually have to disagree with you about going further into debt. Ideally everyone wants a balanced budget, however when the economy is bad that is probably one of the worst goals for a government to have. It’s backwards from how we run our lives, but investing in projects that will create jobs and put money in people’s pockets will help stimulate our economy enough that we will be on good standing and then the government can work to reduce our debt. Does that make sense?
It’s just another example of how our country is run completely on an ad hoc basis without any possible thought to the consequences of our future actions. Somebody, someday, is going to have to pay off the debt from these stimulus checks, so it’s anything but ‘free’ money.
“will help stimulate our economy enough that we will be on good standing and then the government can work to reduce our debt.”
That’s economics 101, but where was the fiscal responsibility when our economy was chugging along nicely since the last recession ended in 2002-ish? Even when times were good in the recent past, our nation was running itself into the ground financially.