A stimulus package! (We want our money back!)

I think the government, in giving every Tom, Dick, and Sally twelve hundred dollars as a stimulus, is implicitly recognizing that the money that they take from us in taxation would actually do better for the greater good than in our hands than in government hands. 

This kind of "stimulus package for the masses" is the government's attempt at a fair deal for everyone. While I am afraid of how much money this will inject into the economy (causing inflation), I am hopeful as long as the amount of money given to each citizen is not larger than the amount they paid last year in taxes. Because, in theory, that money was already theirs and they handed it over to the government, who haven't used it yet. Thus, in my estimation (as a non-economist), I think inflation will be kept under control. Plus, there's the fact that inflation causes a spurt of economic growth anyways before prices start rising. Perhaps that's exactly what we need in this situation. 

I don't know enough about either ethics or economics to tell you what you should think about the stimulus package. All I can tell you is what I think (and most Americans probably think:) Yay free money!

Free money, is most often not free at all. It comes at a cost. Injecting twelve hundred dollars into the pockets of almost every single person in the US (five hundred for kids, none for people who made 99k or more last year), what kind of inflation chaos will ensue? Will we experience hyperinflation like in Zimbabwe and Venezuela? Who knows? Not me. 

I think, morally, as long as the stimulus amount is reasonable, it's the equivalent of a post-tax tax break. And we (I mean anyone who's a libertarian) would see that as a good thing. As long as the government doesn't go TOO far, we should be fine. 

But what do I know? What do you think about the stimulus package? I think that, perhaps this is a bit more helpful than that one trillion Obama stimulus back in 08. Since a lot of the money is going straight into the pockets of the ordinary citizenry, we know it won't be spent on pork-barrel stuff. It will be spent on food, transportation, and perhaps entertainment and art. That's the kind of spending that helps everyone. I think that, since the average citizen has been given the ability to direct government spending in this situation, that we'll have a better outcome. 

Why haven't we done this before? Who knows. Let's just see how the citizen's bailout ends up and make a judgement in hindsight. 

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