a) You’re assuming the government would put the money to a more proper (in terms of economic demand) use. If you’re assuming that, it means you’re assuming a few hundred bureaucrats in Washington know better about what an economy of 300 million people want and need, better than the millions of people who literally live and work in all the sectors…meaning that somehow, despite the fact that working in their industry is what these idividuals do for a living, day in, day out…despite the fact that they have countless hours of experience in their fields…and most of all, despite the fact that they are the people who make up the economy in the first place…you’re still assuming these politicians, the vast majority of whom have never even had a real job in their life (let alone created one) can make more economically sound investment decisions.
Quite a stretch to say the least.
b) What you’re literally saying is “hey, if the government took all this money — which was created out of thin air and then placed in the hands of people with close ties to government — if the government took all that money away, wouldn’t that make things a little better?”
This is basically the equivalent of saying “Hey, if that parent who fed her child nothing but donuts, Ding Dongs, and Pixie Sticks…if she just made him vomit all that stuff up, wouldn’t that make it better?”
Here’s an idea. Don’t hand it out in the first place.
P.S.
Just as with the vomiting fat kid, no, taking all the funny money away again would not help the situation. Think about it. The whole reason they were stimulating (read: printing money) in the first place was to artificially boost demand…as in, make the economy appear to be doing better than it really was…i.e. make everyone feel (and believe they were) wealthier and more prosperous than they actually were. Why the hell do you think they haven’t stopped printing? What did you think all that QE business was about? The minute they turn off the spigot, the party’s over. No one wants to be up for re-election when that happens.
They’re going to kick that can down the road as long as they can. They’re not about to try to take money out of the economy. Like I was saying here in this recent thread, the last time they did that was in the 80s when Paul Volker pushed the prime rate up to 21.5%. Take two seconds and think about what the U.S. debt service payment would be if rates were just half that. Check here if you need help.