The NYT recently ran a ridiculous article - A Stimulus That Could Save Money - which called for a massive federal spending/jobs program which would subsidize the weatherization (caulking, insulating, etc.) of homes. You know, because all the other Big Government bailouts have been so spectacularly successful!
It's one of these Commi panaceas that would: be *green*, supposedly create jobs, and implicitly help secure the votes of long-suffering blue-collar workers.
The econo-geek blogger Calculated Risk linked to the story - Cash for Caulkers? - but his only articulated response was this:
This proposal has merit. There are many unemployed construction workers - so this would help with unemployment (a real jobs bill) - and weatherization would save the homeowners money over time.
Say what?
I understand Mr. Calculated Risk tries to pump out a lot of posts each day....but his response was a joke. OBVIOUSLY, he's a knucklehead - I don't give a hoot how many Morons read his blog each day.
I can't go into detail on why this idea is so ill-founded, as that wouldn't really be a *green* use of my energies...but I will say this:
Implicit in forcing people to *save on their energy bill* is the arrogance of nanny-statism. Clearly, this proposal is based on an elitist foundation that the masses are too dumb to manage their own heating bills.
As someone who's lived most of their life in frigid Massachusetts....let me just tell you that defies my life's experience. People up here are very, very cheap with heat. They seldom forget to turn it off when they go to work because many people turn it off completely at night - and are basically bundled up all winter. Heck, I'll bet my parents house is 54 degrees this instant! (BTW, my father caulks the windows every single year!)
Believe me, if there were an economical way for Massholes to save on energy....these impoverished cheapskates would have already been all over it!
That anecdotage aside, consider that this proposal is backed by none other than green-loon John Doerr. The guy literally cries when talking about *climate change*! See his tears and what I previously wrote on him - Global Warming Hysteric.
Can't waste any more time on Bill McBride, aka Calculated Risk. Will conclude with one comment from his blog which does a decent job slapping him silly:
The sophistication of an actual functioning economy in selecting beneficial activities is orders of magnitude greater than some brainstorming processes throwing trial balloons that survive the "I don't see a good argument against it" test.
See also the original - Marginalizing Calculated Risk.
4 comments:
I went a few times "WTF???" when i read CR in the past. I wondered if he is being "regulated" or maybe "self-regulating" for the sake of popularity.
CR blog's niche is Real-estate, but over the past few months its not upto the mark.
I think CR posts nothing but a bunch of useless, if not obvious, macroeconomic data.
There are some good commenters there - or there were anyway.
That's the only reason I ever visit.
But sites who depend on commenters always die when those commenteres start their own blogs or leave because they get pissed off.
Did your caulk fill the crack?
Good one!
That crudity has potential triple meaning.
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