There is an important difference between stimulus and wealth creation.  It is like the difference between a sugar buzz and good nutrition.

Stimulus is almost by definition is a short term move- a sugar buzz.

Wealth is created when innovations and risk taking take place and lowers the cost, improves the quality or creates new products and services.  The more that these serve the desires of citizen consumers the greater is the wealth effect.

With some few notable exceptions this almost happens exclusively in the private sector.  We are willing to sacrifice the investment in the private sector for necessary government function such as courts and police and for some entities that serve the wealth creating environment and general welfare- and we understand that these government services that protect property and facilitate commerce are worth the sacrifice.

But we must understand that the cost of government is a sacrifice to private investment- and if that sacrifice gets too large investment will suffer.  It is good when we can shrink the cost of government in the long run even if there is some short term pain- sugar withdrawal.

It is widely debated what the proper size of government is but I would suggest that we have grown it too large and are in no danger of it becoming too small anytime soon.  I would also suggest that transfer payments are a part of that cost.

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