Americans to Get $5k to Shop Under New Bill | Hacker News Reader

Americans to Get $5k to Shop Under New Bill

newsweek.com

10 pointsDocFeind14 comments

Guess it must be an election year - politicians promising things they know have zero chance of ever becoming law.

It wouldn't be the first time there was an economic stimulus bill passed and that's what this purports to be. The "Made in USA" requirement is the only real difference. All the stipulations just makes this messy to administer but perhaps that's a feature.

An easier way to help taxpayers would be to give everyone a $5,000 tax credit. If you want to exclude to the top 5% or so for political show, the tax tables could be adjusted so it effectively does the same thing, with a credit claimable by those with a tax liability less than $5k. But since this is justified as a buy American goods campaign, it has to be complex instead of just helping (almost) everyone.

Pssst. Hey everybody, it's your money they're gonna take away and oh so generously give back to you - less some amount for overhead, natch.

I'll start making American made plastic cases filled with $4900 worth of cash.

It's art.

I'd like to buy some American-made 152mmm artillery shells for some friends.

It's art too.

In theory, there should be bipartisan support for this. Republicans say they love small business, bringing back manufacturing, self-sufficiency - and they also prefer adjusting policy via tax incentives rather than direct spending.

When everyone is 5000$ richer than no one is richer

Why is that?

It only addresses the demand side and not the supply side.

Putting more money into system doesn't add any additional goods. You only get the benefit if you are among the first to get the money because you will be able to bid up the price putting the person without the extra money at a price disadvantage --or-- you get the product(s) first leaving others to go without.

The fear is in extreme cases, this can lead to inflation and/or empty shelves.

Maybe with something like donuts, the baker has plenty of dough and will hire more and create more to meet the demand. Or maybe you have no control over your raw materials (like the price of OIL or some complex refining process) and can't make any more gasoline no matter how much money your customers have.

Is more money being put into the system, or is it being allocated differently?

I can understand that printing more money leads to inflation. I'm having a harder time understanding why taking money from one place and putting it in another does the same thing.

> Putting more money into system doesn't add any additional goods.

I don't think goods are in short supply.

> you get the product(s) first leaving others to go without

Luckily the person able to solve that problem—the producer of those goods—just got a whole bunch of money by selling the goods they had produced so far.

I'll concede I may have conflated the idea of money printing with reallocating existing funds. It's not clear where this money is going to come from. But I get suspicious whenever the govt just wants to hand out money. There are so many other programs handing out money. Why is this one going to be better?

I dunno. But people really like their credit card bonuses, even those things come from credit card interchange fees, which in turn come from raising the prices on goods.

> When everyone is 5000$ richer than no one is richer

I don't think you understand the proposal. It seems mainly about bending consumption patterns towards American-made goods.

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