Recovery plan: Put unemployed to work

I read some details of the soon-to-be Stimulus Act. Something for everyone. Those who pay income tax. Those who receive Social Security payments. Combat veterans drawing disability payments.

I qualify under all three, but I cannot figure how putting money in my pocket is going to stimulate the economy. I am down 40 percent in my retirement nest egg, and this is a concern. However, I am hopeful that there will be improvement before I exhaust it. My spending plans will not change because of the handout. I will be inclined, more likely, to salt it away against future catastrophe.

Many of the distressed can be numbered in one or more of these categories, but so can many, many of the not-so distressed. I would venture to say that perhaps 75 percent of those of us who will receive this windfall do not need it and may not spend it.

The economics of recovery is a complicated business. I do not understand it. I fear that neither do our politicians and administration experts. Economists can model the probable effects of a variety of stimulus options. The models will not be perfect, but they will be guideposts. An examination of the current plan could not rate highly on their scale of possible options.

My own oversimplification: Until we put the unemployed and underemployed back to work at a living wage, there will be no recovery. The Great Depression lasted until World War II forced us to expand industrial production.

John Elkmann

Winfield