ben bernanke helped frame this rebate program with his thoughts on what people of differenct economic classes will do with the money. that is, the poor will spend it while the better off will save it.

frankly, $600 is still a pittance to anyone making more than 30k a year. it’ll buy you a couple months of beer, some new shoes and pants, just crap.

by funneling money to the poor, to people who have low or no income tax liability, you’re achieving two things. wealth transfer from the middle class to the rich and stimulus to the consumer economy. the stimulus part is obvious, the poor will mostly spend it on consumer goods and help prop sales. the funneling is the tricky part; the upper 80% pay for the lower 50% to go shopping. the money flows through the hands of the lower 50 and into the hands of the top 40 who own and sell crap. the working class get screwed, the middle service providers get screwed, the lower class get garbage and the upper class get their money back and then some.