Starting July 25th, American parents began receiving their $400 tax refund for each child they claimed as a dependent. This is another in a long series of Bush tax cuts designed to give the economy a shot in the arm. The idea is that families will spend this money on new products and services, thus producing more badly needed jobs. The new jobs produce both more taxable income and more activity in the marketplace. Everyone wins. Sounds like a good idea.
So what are you going to do with your families tax refund? I know what my family is going to do. The UC system increased undergraduate fees $405 dollars for the spring quarter because the state of California is in super-duper debt. Thanks Bush, but we're gonna need another five bucks. What's worse is that next fall the fees are being increased another $795 bucks. Looks like we'll need yet another tax cut.
Not everyone in California has a sister at UC Santa Cruz. A lot more drive cars and trucks. The state has also raised the vehicle registration cost 66.7 percent. For a typical car, this could be a hundred dollar increase. For expensive luxury cars, the raise could be as high as four hundred bucks. Yikes! Sounds like the refund might not make it to the mall this time. Court filling fees are being raised. The library is raising its late fees. Tuition is also being raised in the CS and community college systems as well. This is all with out mention to the huge cuts to almost every government funded program from health care, to education, to corrections to funding for the fine arts. Either this deficit is covered by the private sector somehow or people are just going to have to live without these services. Things are really adding up here in the Golden State.
Before you rush out to Best Buy with your refund check to get that new Samsung flat screen TV, realize that your purchase won't really help the economy. In order for the refund to jump start the economy, you need to reinvest it in the US economy, not Korea's. So, what can you buy that's wholly American? Well, don't go into the GAP. Everything there was made in Indonesia. Stay away from Foot Locker. That's all Indonesian too. And you should avoid the toy store, most of that is hecho en Mexico. Electronics? That's Malaysia, Japan or our good friend Korea again.
Is anything still American? Are there any products that only the US can claim as wholly theirs? Well, there are two things that are still only made right here in the good old United States; monster trucks and hair-in-a-can. So the next time you want to patch up that thinning spot on the top of your head, or if you have the need for a vehicle with 8-foot tires, buy with the confidence that you are helping the US economy get back on its feet. Put your refund to good use. Buy a monster truck!!!
What happens when you are forced to spend your refund on state fee increases
or to cover the massive program cuts that you can't live with out? It seems
to me that you don't help the economy at all. Ok, but what if you still take
your credit card to the mall in an attempt to buy American? Well, you'll find
that we are no longer in that business. America doesn't make anything anymore.
We design stuff, and sell services. The economic model that Bush is using to
justify his tax cuts just doesn't apply anymore. Even without the state fee
increases, tax cuts do not affect the national economy in the same way anymore.
So is it just money down the drain? Well, yes.
