I think that the idea of a whopping big stimulus has some merit (as compared to Japan's 'lost decade' of multiple small stimuli) - but, as noted, it is pork and only going to help large corporations and businesses reap some comfort.  But it won't help the general populace and the world economy for many years to come in this form.  This is 'semi-trickle down economics' and, in any form, has never worked.

Giving piles of cash to already extravangantly rich people doesn't help anybody but the extravagantly rich (see: everytime this was done).  That should be very evident from the already failed TARP.  Yes, it was a 'tarp' that protected and covered large financial institutions and has had virtually no benefits besides.  By putting the money into the peoples' pockets and small/local governments, it will trickle up quickly as they stop clinching and get back to producing and spending.

I'm clinching.  Everything that I can save is being saved.  No more credit cards for the past year and a half.  No more online automated services (that includes Daz's PC membership).  No more spending on anything even remotely unnecessary.

Just before this mess hit me in July 2008, I was optimistically preparing to save up for a new vehicle (the current one is a 1999 gas-guzzling SUV).  I had just over $6000 in my checking account and expected it to go up reasonably from previous income.  That is as high as it ever got since.  So much for that....

I have to hope that this vehicle doesn't break down in any major way (and no accidents), that my health will remain substantial enough to avoid hospitalization and such - that nothing goes wrong that requires massive amounts of unavailable and unforeseeable finances to cover it.  Any hopes for a better year than the past decade have dissolved.  And I will not go back to the impoverishment of my life over twenty years ago after so much.

Let's not simply 'pray and hope' for better times.  We must 'demand and act' to secure them.

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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