My friend thinks the stimulus package is all pork, especially because of that pittance it gives to

[Mike 03]

"those artists."

This was my response. It could have been more tactful, I suppose:

Hi ---,

Firstly, I couldn't agree with you more that the extremely dire coverage of the financial crisis is upsetting (that's an understatement) and surely it is not making the situation better. I'm also very pissed at some of my own senators and congresspeople for their ignorance and hysteria during these very important Congressional and Senate Finance and Banking committee hearings, where it is so obvious they don't understand Economics. It's disgraceful that these crucial committees are made up of dunces. They are scapegoating all the wrong people. They are tossing the spotlight on the dust mites instead of the black widows.

That comment you made about the money that is designated to go to artists--I have to remind you that artists work too for a living. My training was is cinema, --. My education cost nearly a hundred thousand dollars, which was paid for by my amazing parents and myself. You don't want any money to go to artists, even though cinema is one of our only respected and profitable exports nowadays? Do you know what would happen to your home town of Los Angeles if the film industry were to collapse tomorrow?

It's much harder to find employment in the arts than any other field right now, so bless the bill for this designation. It's also a pittance compared to what everybody else is getting, so I wouldn't get my panties in a wad over artists getting fifty million or whatever they are getting. It's bird crumbs. You of all people should know this (grin), you are living in a city whose major source of revenue is film. Cinema is also one of only respectable exports right now, since we stopped inventing new things to export and now mostly just import toys and junk from Asia. I'd hate to see us lose the film industry too.

The stimulus package will create jobs. It won't create as many as it would have if the Republicans hadn't taken a machete to it, but as you must know it entails an enormous amount of infrastructure repair and replacement, as well as inducements for companies to engage in brand new Research and Development to find ways to clean up the techniques of processing coal and extracting oil from tar sands, etc...

There's no doubt that it will do this. But it also has to stimulate the economy quickly, and infrastructure alone won't do that.

So the stimulus package also has to do something called "quantitative easing," which is a cute euphemism for massive injection of cheap liquidity into the economy. Money has to get flowing again. There has to be enough money that banks stop worrying whether or not they can safely lend.

This is a two prong strategy: Stimulate the economy on the retail/middle class side, plus (TARP) stabilize the balance sheets of the banks by eliminating toxic assets and capital injection.

But it has to be huge. Japan's stimulus package was larger than ours, and they have half our population, and it looks like it will fail miserably.

The following items were in the original package. I don't know if they've been eliminated or not:

Health information technology
University research facilities
Energy R&D
Biomedical research
Science
Wireless/Broadband
Federal building efficiency
Renewable energy
Advanced batteries
Renewable energy tax incentives and loans
Intercity Rail
Border Crossing and security issues
Environmental cleanup
Water resources (Hugely important)
Clean Water
Highway repair

It just goes on and on. I'm too tired to type them all. This is not "pork", this is prime fucking rib. We need it, and more than anything it has to be huge enough that not only Americans believe it but the entire world believes it, because the entire world invests in the United States, and we need their investments right now to stay afloat. Otherwise, even the "safety" of our Treasuries might turn to shit, and the dollar will be something we will wipe our butts with instead of spend.

PS

Eh, let me at least finish with that list:

Here are some more items that were "high budget" items in the Obama plan that some people think is pork:

Job Training
Medicaid
Housing Crisis (originally budgeted at $34 billion, apparently increased or moved to its own program, separate from the stimulus)
Alleviation of hunger in the U.S.
Cobra health care for unemployed
Unemployment benefits
Improve schools
Fiscal relief for states that are up shit creek, like mine and yours and Florida

Do you think this is pork? I know you are worried about health insurance? What do you think about all of these allocations to health insurance and things like Cobra? Is that pork?

There are so many things I've leaving out, like

Transit improvements
Airport maintenance and improvement
Preservation of public lakes and parks
Rebates to people who weatherize their homes

I guess a lot of Americans don't think about these other sectors, or they don't think of the people who practice medicine or airport maintenance as having real jobs, or something like that. It's hard to get inside their heads. They appreciate a good freeway when they are driving on it, but they don't have the brains to think that somebody had to design and build the freeway.

I don't regard these issues as pork at all.

We need to be inventing things again and not just gorging ourselves on junk from China. We have lost our competitive edge in the world because for the past eight years we have been discouraged from inventing anything worthwhile. Consumption has destroyed us.

(and then some non-pertinent chatter)

Pork. It ain't pork.

[2Design]

1. sorry your friend is ignorant n/t

[snappyturtle]

2. Here's the wording I found a couple days ago on the arts endowment:

$50 million in grants to fund "arts projects and activities which preserves jobs in the non-profit sector threathened by decline in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn" through the National Endowment for the Arts.

This statment could cover a wide range of arts activities and I only wish it had been for more! But it sure is better than none.

[RandomThoughts]

3. There is another reason for art and music.

One of the ways for unemployment to fall is a combination of better wages, and people being willing to work fewer hours.

For people to accept working a few less hours, community events, and entertaining activities are needed to help fill the time with 'something to do'. By supporting music, art, film, cultural activities, and community gatherings like sports and groups, especially events that bring families together and teach children to socialize well with others, you achieve this filling of some of the time with events that also bring people together to discuss anything. And once people discuss anything, they also discuss important things, and better communicate with each other.

Just a thought on art culture and society.

Kids in school that have music, art, team sports, and community activities actually learn better and get in less trouble. Plays and funded art projects can add to this element of society.

Thats my thoughts on arts funding.

(private industry funding solely driven by profit leads to bland repeated formula films that appeal to the lowest common denominator. Just look at the film festivals, and how because they are more status driven, and not profit orientated, they reach into new thoughtful areas of expression that do not just 'all fit the same box office formula'.

This may just be my personal taste in what I like to view. :shrug: don't know.)

[billyoc]

4. Honestly, Mike, for the amount of effort you put into that response,

you could have gone out and made another friend. :hi:

[TWiley]

5. I wish it was ALL PORK (spending) Tax cuts dont work.

We had 8 years of deregulation with tax cuts and look what happened. $13 extra in your check each week does nothing. Take that lump sum and buy a power plant, or improve the grid, or build some bridges. Then we all have somethign to show for it.

The tax cut part of the package is the loosing part. A huge lump sum is squandered in $13 / week increments. It was the REPUBLICAN BASTARDS who pushed for this part of it.

[4lbs]

6. Your friend needs to talk to those 250 people employed to build a new bridge in Missouri because

of $8.5 million that was funded by the recovery package.

[Brazenly Liberal]

7. Well done, Mike!

I don't know if it will make any difference with that friend. I suspect anyone who approaches the issue with the unquestioning belief that it's "all pork" isn't someone who is looking for info to help make up his mind. KWIM?

But it's really a very good answer and I think we all need to remember that the important thing is JOBS. It doesn't matter if they're jobs building bridges or putting bridges on guitars, printing the labels for CDs or making the music on them - jobs are jobs right now and any honest, ethical work is good work.

PS: It must have been sorely tempting, though, to write back saying, "Dear ----, Here's something you'll find as amusing as I did: You made a typo, substituting 'p' for 'w' and turned all those economy-lifting work (which is to say jobs) into economy-dragging pork. hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! Yeah, that cracked me up, too. Remind me to tell you about the time I sent a note to my mother-in-law and fat-fingered my good luck wishes for her new job."

[baldguy]

8. That "pork" is going to feed alot of people.