Stimulating!

I hate to be the one to point out the obvious, well not really, but has anyone else noticed the results of the stimulus package? One of the keys to providing economic recovery was to extend unemployment benefits. Now on the surface that might seem like a nice vote gathering offering to the out of work, but here's how I see it. Since the Stimulus package was enacted unemployment has been stimulated from eight point something percent to a recent high of over ten percent. Perhaps paying people to be out of work has become an attractive means of making a living? It seems to the untrained eye (that'd be me), that the incentive to find employment has been removed. You know being broke, hungry, and homeless goes a long way as a motivator. Having a check sent to your home for doing nothing, not so much!

Someone much wiser than me has said people will change, when the pain of staying the same, exceeds the pain of change. The weather is about to slide into winter up north, you know all that global warming and stuff. To go to work is soon going to involve leaving your house and facing that balmy ice and snow, so you can have 1/2 of your check stolen to benefit less fortunate people sitting at home and collecting a government provided income. Which do you find more attractive?

There is an old story that applies here: A salesman approaches a farmer sitting on his front porch. As the salesman begins his pitch the farmer's hound dog lets out a painful howl. The salesman takes note but continues on. A short time later the salesman is interrupted again by the dog's howl. Frustrated the salesman asks the farmer, "What's wrong with your dog?" The farmer replies,"Nothing, he's just lying on a nail." The salesman asks,"Well, why doesn't he move then?" The farmer leans back in his rocking chair and says knowingly, "It don't hurt enough yet!"

Just maybe it's time to remove the incentive to be jobless!

God Bless
Capt. Bill