News to Bemuse

Perhaps we're mistaken--it's been a while--but we seem to remember our parents telling us that saving money was a good thing. Virtuous, even. Don't live beyond your means, pay off your bills in full on time, and sock a little bit away for a rainy day. Sounds familiar, right?

It's bewildering, then, to hear economists and other authority figures deriding economic stimulus measures because they encouraged savings ("New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step"): According to conservative economist Martin Feldstein, the stimulus package that President Obama and Congress passed earlier this year was in principle a good idea but one that didn't work as well as it could have because "Temporary tax cuts and one-time transfers to seniors were largely saved and didn't stimulate spending."

And that's a conservative economist; you know, "conservative". . . against pointless spending, blah blah blah. (And not for nothing, but wasn't it excessive spending that got us into this mess in the first place?)

Look, we get it. We understand the basic economics underlying Feldstein's and others' concerns: Money needs to circulate through the economy in order to stimulate demand; increased consumer demand stimulates increased manufacturing and production; increased production calls for companies to increase hiring, which puts more money into the pockets of more people; newly employed people go out and buy cars and refrigerators and XBoxes; the "virtuous cycle" continues, and the economy starts humming again. But as someone who has essentially been unable to "save" anything for the last several years, the Solipsist is still bemused at the inevitably conflicting signals.

We see why economics has been called the "dismal science": A "science" that essentially tells people to ignore their own higher impulses--thrift, responsibility, humility--sounds pretty dismal to us.

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BONUS COVERAGE:

From "U.S. Fears Iraqis Will Not Keep Up Rebuilt Projects":

American officials are concerned that all the new infrastructure projects built in Iraq will fall apart once (or before) the US leaves:

"The [relief and reconstruction] projects run the gamut--from a cutting-edge, $270 million water treatment plant in Nasiriya that works at a fraction of its intended capacity because it is too sophisticated for Iraqi workers to operate, to a farmers' market that farmers cannot decide how to share. . . ."

"Too sophisticated for Iraqi workers"? Farmers who "cannot decide how to share"? Sorry, did we miss the day in class when they explained that Iraq was a nation of Kindergartners? Because we do not believe that the US needs to stay in Iraq because the local population is a bunch of mental and emotional incompetents: They're not! Projects too sophisticated? Then get sophisticated. Learn! And let the US get the hell out of there.

(Digression: We know there are other issues--corruption and security chief among them. Those need to be dealt with. But lack of sophistication and an inability to learn should not be--are not--a reasonable obstacle. EOD)

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Latest sign that the apocalypse is upon us:

"Tips for the Admissions Test . . . to Kindergarten"

We have nothing to add.