Will and I have very different economic philosophies, but I agree that this stimulus package is really silly. I imagine many people will, like me, put that money towards paying off a fraction of a much larger bill (credit cards, mortgage, loans, etc.) and that it won't really make its way into the broader economy through any kind of consumption. Nor should it. Most Americans, like me, significantly overspend and more significantly fail to save. Handing out checks for $600 just encourages more of that bad behavior (though it is worth noting that this bad behavior is precisely what the culture encourages from us and is perfectly in line with American values). I think we need to hold these large corporations, as well as the government, responsible for the decisions they have made and focus government spending on services that consistently alleviate people's suffering during these periods of economic turmoil. The whole "give a man a fish" story seems cliche, but if it ever applied perfectly, this is it. Handing out a check for $600 only helps if you're going to do it again next month, and the month after that, and the month after that. The metaphor falls short because Americans know how to fish, but there's no fish to be had.

Dustin Kidd