This blog post caught my eye. The “stimulus package” has $88 million for new construction in the Milwaukee school system. Does it matter that the shrinking school system already has many empty buildings? Evidently not.
But don’t worry. The officials in Milwaukee will find some way to spend the money anyway. The construction unions will be delighted to construct a Taj Mahal or two for the public’s servants to work in.
Back in the 80s, a new federal office building was built in downtown Milwaukee, a monument to long-time Congressman Henry Reuss. The GAO did a report on the need for additional government office space in the city and found that there was plenty of space for federal agencies (assuming that we even need federal agencies to have offices in Milwaukee!), but the money was appropriated and the building constructed anyway. That’s how our wonderful government works.
We’re in a recession, which means that some resources that were drawn into housing, finance, and other sectors that over-expanded during the bubble must now find useful employment elsewhere. The approach of the politicians is to impatiently try to solve this temporary problem for some people by borrowing vast sums of money to spend on an array of projects that would fail any cost/benefit analysis in normal times. Wasting resources on pet political projects can’t speed the economic adjustments that must be made. It merely allows the politicians to say that they’re doing something.
