November 3, 2009
Could Have Been Worse, Will Not Be Better
Unsurprisingly, Kate Brewster, of Poverty Institute fame, is inclined to cheerlead for stimulus money:
"It could have been worse" might not be an inspirational slogan, but it aptly describes the situation in Rhode Island and other states thanks to unprecedented federal efforts to fight back against one of the worst recessions in memory.
She goes on to list some big dollar amounts that have been handed out, but my mind keeps returning to her opening quotation. In the years and decades to come, we should pause from time to time to wonder whether, in those future days, things could have been better in the absence of all of that advance spending.
In Rhode Island, surely, and probably throughout the nation as a whole, we are likely to be measuring our progress in degrees of economic pain, rather than of success, for the better part of our lives. Unless, of course, we turn our nation from the path on which Brewster's ilk has set us.
Never forget that Brewster and the rest of her parasite crew count on dependency as their reason for existing in their current positions.
Posted by: joe bernstein at November 3, 2009 2:47 PMWhy do these people at places like the Poverty Institute point to their work and how things have not improved and say that all they need is more money and things will get better. Their methods have not worked. These are organizations that refuse to consider new ideas. I would love to sit down with Kate Brewster and discuss their methods. When you give people something for nothing, they don't value it!
Posted by: Chris at November 4, 2009 8:45 AM"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." --Plutarch (c. 46-120 A.D.)
Haven't read Plutrach's "Lives" in a few years, but I believe this was a commentary on the "bread and circuses" prior to the resurection of the Empire.
Posted by: Warrington Faust at November 4, 2009 5:29 PM