The Tax Rebate is in the Mail

Quote of the day:
“[The reality show] ‘The Hills’ isn’t aiming to stimulate or inspire; I think people watch it mostly to figure out why they’re watching it.”
--Nancy Franklin, The New Yorker, April 21

Well, well, well. This week most of us will be getting a cash gift from our government. Isn’t that special?

I’m not about to send ours back, but this is a bit of a lame idea. This tax rebate is based on the premise that we need encouragement to spend money. I don’t know about you, but I have no problem spending money, thank you very much.

I suspect that most Americans also have no such problem. For those who do, or who are congenitally parsimonious, what makes anyone think a sudden cash infusion is going to change them? I don’t get it.

Yes, I know, “economists” say we are strapped, and have no money to spend. After in-depth analysis and discussion, they have concluded that If we just had some money, we would spend it.

We can certainly hope the equation is this easy. But I suspect most of us have gotten past the stage of getting 50 cents from Mom and buying a candy bar with it.

We’ll see.