Stimulate what?

So, as I am searching the articles and newsprint for interesting things about our government to read, I keep coming across the stimulus package and what it involves. How this is related to us, the common people, and what it does to actually put some money in our pockets and help.

This editorial, written by Robert J. Samuelson, expresses some of what I believe to be the main issues that we all need to know today about what the stimulus actually does or doesn't do for the American people. Samuelson is an accredited writer who has won many awards, and has written for the Post since his first column in 1969. He also has a couple of books published. You can read his biography here.

The basics of what he talks about in the stimulus package deals with what the national and global impact of what the stimulus does and very little of how it will actually help the common American. This is what frustrates most Americans today. It seems to me that what we want to know is how I will be affected and what is in store for my future. I think we can all agree that the first round of payments that went to the banks was very disappointing. I mean, how dare they use the money just to balance the books. If any other company head had ran a company into the ground, he would be out on his butt with no severance and no 18 million dollar salary. The article as a whole does help to explain where some of the money is being distributed to, but this is very disappointing to hear. I have to completely agree with him on the points of how all of this is designed to be long term and help to keep the entire economy from collapsing, but some of what is happening is still very confusing and unclear about how it will help me.

Some of the money spent on things that I feel are more important in the long run, there is very little money spent at all. For example, if the government would help to regulate the cost of wind turbines as an alternative source of energy, then we all could have them for our home and seriously cut down on the use of fossil fuels for electricity. If any one is interested, you can find a good turbine though helixwind. This is a good alternative. We could even pass legislation to make them new standards for homes. Gas prices going down and the fact that we would need less fuel would immediately put money back into our pockets. These are the things the American people want to hear, not how a long term buy out of the banks who are just trying to get as much money as they can to pay outrageous salaries and share holder dividends.

We need to make sure that stimulus is not just going to balance accounts of the rich and large companies that have ran themselves and the economy into the ground and make sure that what is left is not being used on projects that will do us little good for the years to come. The article was well written and I will follow Samuelson for a while because he sparks thought about what is really going on. You can read the article here in The Washington Post.