Over Stimulated - Part 2

08 September 2009

With even Greens leader Bob Brown questioning the value of the stimulus package surely the government needs to give a better account of the value of the stimulus spend.

Small Business minister Dr Craig Emerson has stated that the stimulus will continue until “As long as it was needed to protect jobs and small businesses” Now really what does that mean?

For it is a feature of capitalism that business will continue to go broke and people will loose their jobs, only to have the void filled by new business and new jobs. So going by the good doctor’s reckoning we could conceivably have a stimulus package which lasts for perpetuity. Ask the old USSR how well that goes.

Is business so vulnerable and small business men so stupid in the government’s eyes that they need big brother there to ‘protect’ them. No they do not. What they do need is for government to get out of the way and provide the infrastructure and system to make the running of business more efficient and to make it easier to both employ and sack people.

Propping up the economy with debt only pushes up interest rates, making it harder for small business to receive funding, get projects off the ground and yes employ people.

I would of thought this would be as obvious to someone with a doctorate in economics as it is obvious to those who run a small business.

I am becoming more and more sceptical of this whole economic argument. No one can seriously tell me when they are going to stop wasting money on dubiously titled stimulus measures. This weeks revelations that marginal seats have been receiving up to 3 times the stimulus of safe liberal seats suggests to me this is far more political than economic and the only real jobs the stimulus is protecting is that of the likes of Dr Emerson.