The Duh Factor

Study finds increased gov't spending results in unemployment

Instead of providing a stimulating effect to the economy, government spending creates pressures on private industry to reduce staff and investment. The study's authors count themselves as among the shocked

Beautifully illustrated to us by the Obama administration. It's like a 10-year-old stole the keys to the economy and won't give them back.

Mark Steyn has new column related to this very subject: We’re too broke to be this stupid

How did the Western world reach this point? Well, as my correspondent put it, we assumed that we were rich enough that we could afford to be stupid. In any advanced society, there will be a certain number of dysfunctional citizens either unable or unwilling to do what is necessary to support themselves and their dependents. What to do about such people? Ignore the problem? Attempt to fix it? The former nags at the liberal guilt complex, while the latter is way too much like hard work: the modern progressive has no urge to emulate those Victorian social reformers who tramped the streets of English provincial cities looking for fallen women to rescue. All he wants to do is ensure that the fallen women don’t fall anywhere near him.

So the easiest "solution" to the problem is to throw public money at it.