March 09 2010
"Monkeys are getting high for science in North Carolina."
That's the opening line for another short, and all-too-often buried article in McClatchy that highlights the absurdity of government action to "rescue" the economy.
"So, what is the $71,623 federal stimulus grant paying for?" asks McClatchy.
Well, a job, said Mark Wright, a spokesman for the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
"It's actually the continuation of a job that might not still be there if it hadn't been for the stimulus funding. And it's a good job," Wright said. "It's also very worthwhile research."
The study is examining the effects of cocaine on a particular neurotransmitter among monkeys who have had a long-term addiction to cocaine.
The medical school boasts a significant body of work studying addiction. Ultimately, the study could lead to better treatment for recovering cocaine addicts.
This brief synopsis underscores the endemic thinking [sic] in government.
The shibboleths never end. "If government didn't do it, who would?" "If government spends it, then it's worthwhile. It's creating 'jobs.'"
And on and on and on, ad nauseum.
Perhaps Mark Wright should enroll in an economics class and learn this one irreducible fact: Every dollar that government chews up in "stimulus" spending it takes it away from the private sector where the capital would be better utilized in the creation of real wealth-producing jobs.
