Even now, there are still GOP economist who think government spending is what is needed to increase demand and boost the economy. Its not consumption/spending that grow the economy the production/saving/underconsumption. It like how an individual become rich, you produce more than you consume. The same principle apply to a country’s economy
You did a great job of stating what SHOULD be obvious but obviously isn’t obvious to many, even some on FR. I got into a cussfight with one poster on FR who insisted that consumers drive the economy! Having grown up poor and walked behind a mule until I turned eighteen I know that it wasn’t my two kid brothers who were too little to produce much who kept the family fed, it was the efforts of my parents, my older brother and myself, all far more devoted to production than consumption who kept us from sinking from working poor to worthless bums. There are a lot of people who need to go and live in a primitive environment for a week or so and then they would understand far more about economics than most can be taught in ten years of school.