Absolutely not. But, if their effects are not immediate it has no business in a stimulus bill. We should be able to independently debate whether a light rail system from California to Las Vegas is needed at taxpayer expense. Projects like these will not be started in the next few months and, even though the money can be allocated for the projects, it will take years for our money to make it into the economy. My problem is that the Dems basically larded the bill with all the projects they could not get passed under Bush. I also have no doubt that the Republicans would have done the same thing if in power and could have written the bill.
Yorick73, perhaps this illustration will help.
Suppose a hundred people live in a village by the river, and there’s a big town on the other side. It’s hard to get goods from the village to the town. The people of the town get together and say “Let’s build a bridge.” So everyone puts in $1,000, and they build the bridge. Of course, this means that they can take their goods to the big town and sell them. And as a result, everyone makes more money.
Is wealth created in this process?
I would say yes. The people of the town ended up wealthier.
Now, is there any difference between this example, and the village government taxing everyone $1,000 to build the bridge?