Wrong. Read the article.
This was one of the worst examples for them to choose, as it has immediate and stimulating effects. They should have chosen one of the wasteful pork items.
A better use of the money would be on military spending
You do realize that the military is a big beneficiary of this research, right? Ever hear of seismic monitoring of nuclear testing, industrial accidents, etc.? Ever heard of Clark Air Base?
YOU are wrong. I dont care if you like this particular piece of Govt spending, it will not stimulate the economy.
If general govt appropriations would stimulate the economy, we’d be flying high from the last 2 year of massive govt spending increases. It doesnt.
“earmarks like volcano monitoring have zero to do with stimulating the economy.” - is exactly correct.
You do realize that the military is a big beneficiary of this research, right?” So what. We dont spent on the DoD to ‘stimulate’ the economy either. We have over $600 billion in discretionary spending, if it is valuable enough put it there. Dont call it what its not.
ANY Govt spending like this to ‘stimulate’ the economy is doomed to fail at that. The money comes from priavate sector pockets and will cost as much in economic activity as it creates - there is no free lunch. We could have have had a trillion dollar tax cut and we would be ready for a big turnaround. INstead, Obama is sending us on a path that Japan took - and which we went through under the failed FDR New Deal policies.
Result? Years of net growth of about 0%.
I’m hopping mad to think it will take 10 years to get back the wealth lost in the 401k since Obama gave his acceptance speech.
I do realize that. That's why I say give all the money to the military and let them employ the scientists. As far as New Yorkers are concerned however, I'd rather see stimulus money going to SETI than vulcanologists. Any jackass that's ever seen a science fiction movie knows that alien attack (and possibly even Godzilla) poses a far more credible threat to loss of American life and property values than volcanos. Hell, I'm more concerned about "Global Warming" than volcano eruptions.