I wasn't kidding

Posted by Dr. Roy Cordato at 1:30 PM

In my post below I noted that it didn't matter whether or not people were actually producing anything so long as they were employed. Here's one supporter of the stimulus package who actually understands the Keynesian economics he supports. It's Dean Baker from the left wing/progressive Center for Economic and Policy Research being interviewed on PBS.

"Well, basically, to put it crudely, you have to spend money. You know, we heard a discussion, is this a good way to spend money, sod on the mall? I mean, I actually don't mind the mall looking nice. But the point is, you're employing people.

Even if it's wasteful, there's a line -- you go back to Keynes -- there's a line where he says, "We could pay people to dig holes and fill them up again. At least we've employed them."

Now, ideally we are employing people in useful things, and we should look it over and try and make sure it's as useful as possible. But the key point is that we want to spend a lot of money, probably actually a lot more than what's talked about in this package. But we want to get that money out there and do it quickly."

All these arguments about how the money is being spent, and whether this kind of spending will stimulate the economy or this kind won't is all besides the point. A good Keynesian knows that the whole idea is simply to spend--dig ditches and fill them back in again, build pyramids, it makes no difference. Hats off to Mr. Baker. While he is clearly a crummy economist, he does know his Keynesianism and right now that's where the money is.

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