Doubts about the stimulus

I fall loosely in the camp that one would call fiscally conservative. I’m a big fan of balanced budgets. I think capitalism is a powerful, positive force.

Linked with the advent of modern scientific inquiry, capitalism has done more to advance the material and moral well-being of humans than any previous ideology or religion.

Despite what critics on the right and the left may say, I’m convinced that prosperity produces healthier, more ethical societies.

Even the most advantageous human systems and philosophies are flawed and erratic; that’s what human society is all about.

We’ve seen this illustrated in spades the last couple of years. Capitalism has tied itself in knots.

There is certainly a need for more government regulation. Capitalism needs a rule-book. It needs the moderating hand of democratically-approved controls.

(Not only to fix the economic mess, but also to deal with problems such as climate change.)

Yet I remain skeptical about the stimulus program that President Barack Obama has created. Yes, it eases the short-term pain — an understandable and worthy goal.

But what about the long-term? If the economy recovers, will government agencies gradually relinquish some of their awesome new power over trade and commerce?

Will government investments be smart and targeted enough to help create new wealth?

Or will the debt created by soaring rates of deficit spending reach a critical mass that drags down private-sector investment?

Ultimately, my doubts are the result of living and working in rural communities most of my life.

Many of America’s small towns — including here in the North Country — have lived for decades on the equivalent of stimulus spending.

That’s what state prisons are all about. That’s what the Olympic Regional Development Authority represents. All those government jobs paid for out of Albany and Washington DC.

Paid for, in the final equation, by taxpayers.

That stimulus was supposed to spark this region’s private-sector into a renaissance, or at least a semblance of vitality.

But with a few happy exceptions (I’m thinking of PARC and the Plattsburgh airport), private jobs haven’t followed the government dollars.

Despite decades of taxpayer investment, the amount of real investment capital flowing into this region remains dangerously low. Unemployment remains high – and highly dependent on politicians living elsewhere.

Will our national leaders do better? Will government find a way to stimulate the economy without becoming the economy?

Or is the North Country a harbinger of what the US as a whole will look like in the future?

Comments and arguments welcome.

Tags: economy