Making Matters Worse

Dean has an excellent post on Robert Reich's proposals for make work, targeting the unskilled and minorities for more employment. In typical racist fashion, he assumes that construction workers are white males. Further, the administration proposes mandates for hiring the unskilled.

This is why the recession will last longer the more stimulus that is applied. The whole reason we got into a recession is the misapplication of resources. In the inevitable correction that follows economic activity contracts as resources stop flowing to investments and spending that now appears to lack utility. But lo and behold, the aptly named Reich's proposals for a national socialist experiment, will only serve to continue to send funds to unneeded projects. Further, the requirement to use unskilled labor will only increase the waste. What happens to these unskilled folks when these make work projects dry up. It will just lead to more recession. Just as FDR's policies prolonged the Great Depression, so too will these kind of policies prolong the current recession.