[quote=patientlywaiting][quote=4plexowner]”the redistribution is a “bridge” – so to speak – to better times”
spoken like a true Keynesian!
now tell me that the bridge money will be pulled back out of the economy once the ‘crisis’ is over – I always enjoy laughing out loud – it’s good for my health
unfortunately history has shown that the Keynesian bridges only prolong the financial agony and add significantly to the amount of financial pain everyone experiences – ask Japan how their economy has been doing for the past 20 years[/quote]
I’m with you on this one 4plex.
Government intervention has always been sold as a temporary “rescue”. However, the rescues become part of the budget so we’ve had rescues upon rescues, upon rescues.
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I’m a small-l libertarian at heart, so I’m wary of Keynesian “rescues” and “remedies” as well. Believe me. Having said that, the assertion that “Keynesian bridges only prolong the financial agony and add significantly to the amount of financial pain everyone experiences” is not always true (although it’s certainly true most of the time). Two glaring back-to-back examples to the contrary are WWII, where we spent almost $2 trillion in current dollars, and the Marshall Plan, where we spent another $600 billion+ in current dollars. These debts were eventually substantially paid down (go look at the federal debt stats from the 40s and 50s) and both, I think you’d agree, ultimately reduced the “financial pain and agony everyone experienced.” The current actions by the world governments are essentially a Marshall Plan to combat a potential global depression. So I agree that folks should be quite skeptical of Keynesian “remedies” (I know I am), but to suggest that such remedies never work and always cause more pain than they’re worth betrays a fairly dramatic misreading of economic history.
But I agree that too many times the temporary remedies become permanent. And I suspect that the current “temporary” remedies will be with us for a multiple of the years we’re being told (sold?) currently. It’s a problem.
