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I am writing in response to Michael Gibson’s “Stimulus perverts ideals of capitalism,” (The Maine Campus, Feb. 2, 2009). Within this rollercoaster of social commentary, I found a litany of fallacies, inconsistencies and comments that don’t appear to have a base in the real world.
Three sentences into the article, Gibson claims, “Obama’s stimulus package is no different than the other bailouts.” This is incorrect – the terms “bailout” and “stimulus” are not synonyms. Though I will cede they do share the common trait of having large government price tags, this does not make them the same. The bailout was a massive injection of money into financial institutions in an attempt to shore up bad debts and quell the spiral of institutional failure.
The stimulus is also a massive influx of money, but the purpose is to invest in various sectors of our society. Some of the largest programs to receive funding will be our civil infrastructure, healthcare services and infrastructure, education and renewable energy. The stimulus will also include tax cuts. All these massive investments will translate into paychecks as these projects create jobs. The stimulus is an attempt to revitalize and restructure our economy and – on some level – our society.
After this comment, Mr. Gibson makes a bizarre detour to mention that while we are all proud of Obama for closing Guantanamo, the closing only helps prisoners and their families, whereas the stimulus will hurt everyone in the world by lowering the value of the dollar. If you’re confused by the introduction of Gitmo into Mr. Gibson’s economic analysis, just wait for round two: the analogy of the Obama stimulus and the Germany’s post-WWI Weimar Republic. Mr. Gibson proceeds to compare our current situation with 1920s Germany, where the economy was destroyed and hyperinflation ensued. To point out a couple differences, Germany had just spent the better part of a decade dedicating their society to fighting a war in which they lost a few million of their citizens. After losing a war that was both costly in blood and treasure, it was demanded that they make reparation payments to the victors for what was -at the time – the greatest armed conflict to have ever taken place in human history. Their society was in shambles, and their money wasn’t being invested in infrastructure. It was being doled out for causing epic amounts of death and destruction to their neighbors.
This is the beginning of a long list of economically disastrous characteristics that we don’t share with Weimar-era Germany. So if any avid Gibson readers have anxiety about filling your wheelbarrow with Ben Franklins to purchase bread for your loved ones, breathe easy. After a foray into revisionist history, the author proclaims, “Our mixed economy has ruined capitalism through subsidies and government regulation and has perverted its ideals.” Does anyone recall the catalyst for many of our current economic woes? Is there anyone other than the author who would like to argue it was too much government regulation that caused this mess or that Wall St. was on too short a leash? I’d imagine the list is quite short.
To conclude this wild ride that began in 2009 America and made pit stops in Cuba and Berlin, the author gives an invocation calling for a return to Jacksonian ideals – a nostalgic end to a confusing journey, but as far as perversions are concerned, I’d say Mr. Gibson’s article deserves to be on some sort of community alert website.
Benjamin James is an avid Maine Campus reader.
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