My rebuttal to the RW email about the stimulus

[jmowreader]

Shortly after class, an economics student approached his economics professor and said, "Dr. Jones, I don't understand the debate on the stimulus bill. Some people say they should just cut taxes, some say it should be all spending. Can you explain it to me?"

Dr. Jones replied, "I don't have any time to explain it at my office, but if you come over to my house on Saturday and help me with my weekend project, I'll be glad to explain it to you."

The student agreed. At the agreed-upon time, the student showed up at the professor’s house.

The professor stated that the weekend project involved his backyard pool. They both went out back to the pool, and the professor handed the student a bucket.

"First, go to the deep end of the pool and get some water in your bucket. Then dump the water into the shallow end of the pool."

After the student did it, the professor asked, "did you see the level of the pool rise?"

'Yeah, for a minute. Then it settled right back down.'

"That's what happens when you cut taxes on the working class. They spend the money on things they want or need. You can't give the working class much of a tax break because their taxes aren't all that high to begin with, so their purchases are necessarily very small--a dress, or maybe a dinner out. It's hard to base an economic recovery on dresses and dinners out."

'Is that all there is?'

"Come on. You don't sleep through my lectures. You know there's more. Fill your bucket from the pool, then pour it in my hot tub."

The student did it.

"Did the level of the pool rise?"

'No. It probably went down, although it's hard to tell because this is a big pool and that's a little bucket. I think the level of the hot tub rose, though.'

"That's what happens when you give tax cuts to the rich. They invest their money, but when a rich person invests, it generally means he buys valuable things from other rich people. Those rich people then buy things from still other rich people, and on and on. That's not an absolute but it's not far from it."

'You're not done yet, are you?'

"Absolutely not. There's a hose hanging off that wall over there. Get it, stick the end in the pool, and turn it on full blast."

He does it. 'The water's rising!'

"You expected it to, right?"

'Sure.'

"That's what happens when the government spends money. The company that makes the thing gets some, the installation company gets some, all their employees get some. All those people spend it. The people they spent it with spend it again. Some of it goes back to the government as taxes, and then the government can spend it again. A lot of jobs are created. It's all good."

'Thanks, Dr. Jones.'

"I'm not done yet. All this work has made me thirsty. I'm going to have a beer. Would you like one?"

Dr. Jones went into the kitchen and came out with a case of beer. They cracked open beers and talked about all sorts of things. Many beers were consumed.

'Dr. Jones, I gotta pee. Do you have a bathroom?'

"Don't worry about it. Just pee in the pool."

As the student peed in the pool, he asked the obvious question: "Dr. Jones, what economic lesson is this supposed to represent?'

"Oh...this is what happens when you let the Republicans write the budget."

[NMDemDist2]

1. ROFL K&N n/t