The Simple Arithmetic of Obama's Idiotic "Stimulus"

Non-wage compensation (4.67 / 3)

Even increasing total compensation to $40,000, the same $780 billion creates and maintains 4,000,000 jobs for almost four years (47 months), about twice as long as the current "stimulus," and still covers all the 4,000,000 people who have lost their jobs while Obama dithered.

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 03:37:46 AM CST

Thanks for the promo, Jack! (5.00 / 1)

I added an image especially for the front page!

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 10:08:51 AM CST

"National defense" instead of jobs (5.00 / 2)

It may also be worth mentioning that if the huge defense budget were applied to an efficient jobs program, unemployment would more or less vanish, because "national defense" is a very capital-intensive business, and only a small fraction pays salaries, or even provides indirect employment.

Last year Frida Berrigan posted an excellent discussion of that problem on TomDispatch.

Economists have also weighed in on why "war for jobs" as a way out of recession or depression has entered the world of mythology. An analysis from the University of Massachusetts' Political Economy Research Institute, for instance, finds that, for every one billion dollars invested in defense, 8,555 jobs are created. By contrast, the same billion invested in health care would create 12,883 jobs, and in education, 17,687 jobs or more than double the defense stimulus payoff.

This estimate was partly based on previous research by Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier at U Mass in Amherst in 2007, who concluded that "spending on personal consumption, health care, education, mass transit, and construction for home weatherization and infrastructure repair all create more jobs per $1 billon in expenditures relative to military spending," and approximately the same results had been previously reported by Medoff et. al. based on the relatively simple input-output model developed by Nobel Laureate economist Wassily Leontief, "with many subsequent refinements by Leontief and others."

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 12:05:40 PM CST

Inotherwords, what it boils down to (5.00 / 1)

is something that we've had all along....a wartime economy.

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

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by: mplo @ Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 17:27:39 PM CST

[ Parent ]

No. (5.00 / 1)

As above...

For every one billion dollars invested in defense, 8,555 jobs are created. By contrast, the same billion invested in health care would create 12,883 jobs, and in education, 17,687 jobs or more than double the defense stimulus payoff.

 

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 19:41:09 PM CST

[ Parent ]

You've got a point, Jacob Freeze, but (4.50 / 2)

by investing all these billions of dollars in defense, they've created a war-time economy.  

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

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by: mplo @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 06:07:38 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Of course, the wartime economy produces nothing (4.00 / 1)

you can eat, sleep in, drive, learn from, or get repaired by.

Bombs displace houses, hospitals, schools, food, clothing.

A bomb factory manufactures evil.

"Our purpose is aligning culture to human nature."

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by: Ormond Otvos @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 18:28:09 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Obama has only been in office for a year. Give him a chance. (19.14 / 7)

If Obama hadn't done the stimulus we would have lost our talent pool at the banks and brokerage firms. These talented individuals, some of whom are double jointed, others who can wiggle in rooms without being noticed, would have left America businesses  to join foreign firms where their considerable talents would have been used, perhaps against American interests.

And I really find it offensive to call our President a Hockey Puck. What's that supposed to mean?

Stu Piddy...a Free Range Human

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by: Stu Piddy @ Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 20:15:00 PM CST

Excellent comment! (6.00 / 2)

These talented individuals, some of whom are double jointed, others who can wiggle in rooms without being noticed...

Harharharhar!!!

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 20:19:38 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Sorry, Stu, but (0.00 / 0)

I disagree here.

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

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by: mplo @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 06:08:33 AM CST

[ Parent ]

M - PLO? (36.67 / 3)

I still want to know what PLO means in your name?

I suspect the worst.

Who are you really communicating with? I know your sending messages in code to them. Don't think some of us aren't watching you.

Each time there has been an attack...the recent Pentagon firefight, the Joe what's his name with the plane in the IRS building, the plane with the terrorist guy setting himself on fire....YOU mplo posted comments which I believe were in code directing these attacks on this board that very same day. Comments which I am collecting and which point to YOU as the brains or at least messenger behind these attacks.

I'll be sending my findings to the attorney for the Northern District of Illinois...maybe you have heard of him...Patrick Fitzgerald...he loves to put terrorists in jail....but not people like Bush and Cheney ...they aren't terrorists.


Stu Piddy...a Free Range Human

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by: Stu Piddy @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 10:11:21 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Hold on there a minute, Stu. (5.00 / 1)

If you're being snarky, I fail to see the humour in it.

If, on the other hand, you're serious, cool it, or you're likely to wind up in trouble, not me.

I also might add that, because my last name begins with a p and also has the letters l and o in it, that I decided to put it in that way as an abbreviation, if one gets the drift.  thus mplo.

Or, am I supposed to change my username on here just to avoid the possibility of my being sent off and imprisoned somewhere?  

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

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by: mplo @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 11:03:04 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Name (52.50 / 2)

...my last name begins with a p and also has the letters l and o in it...

Polaroid?

PlaySkool?

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 18:03:27 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Nope! (0.00 / 0)

n/t

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

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by: mplo @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 21:42:14 PM CST

[ Parent ]

MPLO Terrorist (52.50 / 2)

How would I end up in trouble if I exposed you as a terrorist?

Iv'e exposed Markos Moulitsas as a person involved with the CIA.

I'll do the same to you. PLO..it's just a koinkadink you say. Your last name begins with a P and also has the letters L and O. It's a code callling for more terrorists attacks....

Your whole comment is in code.

Each sixteenth letter counting the apostrophe....  SN ...A...RKY....A is the sixteenth letter....says the following....ATTACK THE OCTAGON.

There's no date however.

Were watching YOU.

I've already called Fitzgeralds office, I have been able to speak to him personally but I described this site and your name.

Pat will get back to me, he always does.

I'll see you behind bars soon.

it's late I have to sleep or I would go on .........


Stu Piddy...a Free Range Human

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by: Stu Piddy @ Sat Mar 06, 2010 at 01:49:57 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Just what the hell do you think you're doing, Stu? (0.00 / 0)

I mean, really.  Just who do you think you are?

Stu...you're a nasty piece of junk and I don't like you. You're a nasty little fuckwad who likes to try to get people in trouble.

and...fuck the rest of you for taking this stupid shit's side over mine and not shutting him up.

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

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by: mplo @ Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 05:36:39 AM CST

[ Parent ]

All I can say is this, Stu; (0.00 / 0)

You're a complete and total jackass.

"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

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by: mplo @ Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 05:51:05 AM CST

[ Parent ]

I make the joke, yes? (0.00 / 0)

I'm just joking.  

Stu Piddy...a Free Range Human

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by: Stu Piddy @ Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 18:32:18 PM CST

[ Parent ]

SIMPLE analysis is the right term. (0.00 / 0)

You may have been taken by surprise, but I wasn't.

It's simple. SHARE or we all die.

It's the scorpion and the frog fable.

We're the frog. The rich are the scorpion.

There, I 'splained it all for ya, Lucy.

"Our purpose is aligning culture to human nature."

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by: Ormond Otvos @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 01:22:42 AM CST