You have heard the saying, "So much money and so little time." Well, when it comes to Hampton Roads and the Stimulus Bill money, this aphorism should more appropriately read "So little money and such a long time."
In a March 21 article entitled "Stimulus Money Mired in Red Tape," the editorial board of the Virginian Pilot reported "that a Chesapeake city audit indicated only 4 percent of $12 million in stimulus money awarded to the city was spent in 2009 ... so far, only two jobs have been created in Chesapeake ..." The article goes on to state that "even though audits have not been done in the region's other cities ... the results would have been similar. Norfolk, for instance, has spent only $836,000 out of $15.3 million. Most of the money allocated to Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, and Suffolk is also unspent, including funds to end [emphasis mine] homelessness, hire new police officers, and make city buildings more energy efficient." The article then goes on to explain that money is starting to flow to long-term, high tech investments that will make us more economically competitive in the world, like construction projects to fix pot holes, widening roads, pouring elementary school footings. The editorial board blames the delay on "City officials [who] were forced [emphasis mine] to expend too much time and energy to qualify for stimulus funding, and that's unacceptable [emphasis mine]." The article concludes "Whatever you think of the stimulus package [emphasis mine], the Chesapeake audit doesn't mean that money is being wasted or that it won't create jobs. It just confirms the old axiom that government bureaucracy can get in the way of progress [emphasis mine]."
My conclusion is different: the FACT is that the stimulus is not delivering and the progressive's choice of delivery systems -- statist government -- is incapable of efficiently and effectively allocating scarce resources that have alternative uses. When I was a child, I believed in the magnamity of the tooth fairy, but, as it turned out, the tooth fairy just could not deliver. At ten cents a tooth and a limited time horizon for tooth loss, I ran out of teeth, time, and money. I had to grow up and get a real job. It turned out, junior entrepreneurship won the day and bridged the gap between fantasy and reality.
Unfortunately, the editorial board's conclusion is that we need to believe centralized allocation of resources will work out, only if bureaucracy gets out of the way. Of course, centralization of allocation of resources requires larger bureaucracies: approximately 182 new ones for health care. So instead of "believing" in this new religion, perhaps we should examine how it has worked out in the real world.
Thomas Sowell in his book, "Basic Economics," page 17, reports that two soviet economists, Nikolai Smelev and Vladimir Popov described a situation that occured during an era of soviet directed economy "where prices were not set by supply and demand but by central planners who sent resources to their various uses by direct commands, supplemented by prices that the planners raised or lowered as they saw fit." In this situation, the planners raised prices on moleskin pelts:
"State purchases increased, and now all the distribution centers are filled with these pelts. Industry is unable to use them all, and they often rot in warehouses before they can be processed. The Ministry of Light Industry has already requested Gokomsten twice to lower purchasing prices, but the question has not be decided yet. And this is not surprising. Its members are too busy to decide. They have no time: besides setting prices on these pelts, they have to keep track of another 24 million prices." [Emphasis mine.]"
So, let's recap. We have thousands of trailers sitting in Mississippi and Lousiana that are toxic and were never delivered to "persons in need." It has cost the government $300 million to store these trailers. The government has obligated almost $800B to stimulus, 30% of which nationally has been spent, with few jobs created. The government has nationalized health care, increased the national debt by several trillion dollars, and created 182 new bureaucracies AND no one can adequately explain how any of this will work.
I think it is time we reject "progressive" religion -- belief in statist government -- and return to real religion -- a belief in God and the rights he has given to each individual. True "progress" is the product of free people, free markets, and limited government.
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