Krugman's War of the Worlds Economic Plan ( Reposted and Revisited )

Note:

The point of this post is not to make fun of Krugman.  I have always said that a scatter shot approach to spending was a bad idea.  But a well-targeted one?  Yes, that could work.

What Krugman proposes here is an imaginary war against an imaginary enemy.  The spending would stimulate the economy and bring the economy back.  It's too absurd to take seriously.

But here's the thing that could be done instead, and it doesn't have to rely upon imaginary enemies.  We have a real problem brewing with space junk.  We have a big potential problem with an asteroid strike or a comet strike.  Deal with that "enemy" and create jobs while you're doing it.  That's more like it.

You could double or even triple NASA's budget, and you still wouldn't be spending all that much more money than you're spending now.  NASA spends less than $20 billion a year.  Spending an extra $40 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to a trillion dollar deficit.

Now, if you did spend the money, you can have an infrastructure in space that would kickstart new industries.  This would be a stimulus that could work and it wouldn't be ditch digging or leaf raking.  It would support an established industry ( satellites and communications ) and begin new ones ( space tourism and settlement ).

Surely, Krugman wouldn't mind not fighting aliens, but some real problems out there in outer space.

The original post follows:


You have got to see this to believe it




Yeah, the old broken window economic argument works politically. But people are worse off for it.