Stimulus Package Not So Stimulating

Sorry, I'm not talking about President Obama's stimulus package worth US$787 billion. I'm talking about Kevin Rudd's A$42 billion stimulus, or whatever it is worth nowadays. Giving the poorer people of this nation a handout of A$900 is not going to go very far in stimulating the economy. After you've headed to the bottlo, the TAB and the races what is going to be left and how much have you done to stimulate the economy? Bugger all, in my book.

Poor people are poor for a reason. There would be very few poor people that you could give $900 to that would make it work for them, e.g. investing in their education and obtaining a better paying job.

This stimulus package isn't about creating jobs for that person to obtain either. It should be about providing infrastructure for the nation that will allow the economy to gather momentum once demand returns. It should be nation building and not nation cleansing as we are borrowing the money anyway.

In Australia if you borrow money for the legitimate purpose of investing to make money you receive a tax deduction based on interest charges. It should be the same with the stimulus package. This country is borrowing a huge amount of money for it all to pissed up against the wall or for a few consumer electrical goods probably manufactured overseas. Just a bit of good for the world economy, the retail traders in Australia might enjoy it but the fact is it won't create jobs.

We should be looking at carrying out massive infrastructure projects that will benefit the nation instead of making our children burdened with a huge debt. Surely a high speed rail network, better port facilities, refining/processing factories (as opposed to selling raw materials - Australia has been the world's mine for too long), electricity generation, homes for the homeless, more education facilities, etc could have been included.

The opposition, led by Malcolm Turnbull, were right to oppose the stimulus package. Maybe it's just the cynic in me but when I hear talk of an early election, about 18 months early, it appears to be just one large vote-buying exercise.

Never mind the size of the package, I don't think that it is in Australia's best interest and I'm opposed to the way it has been formulated. Kevin Rudd is just Mr Popularity, imho. Australia is just going to be saddled with debt and nothing to show for it.