"Federal stimulus prolonging hard times by delaying state restructuring?"

Philip Greenspun argues "yes".

The stimulus money is apparently not being used to invest in infrastructure that can be used by the future generations who will be paying for it. It is being used to delay restructuring by states whose payroll and pension expenses cannot be sustained via local taxation. The overhang creates fear among private investors. Fear causes them to hold back, thus prolonging the recession, as noted in The Forgotten Man, a history of the Great Depression.

Comments

[JorgXMcKie]

Aaaahhhh. I'm in Michigan. Even when the Democratic Speaker of the House attempts a relatively minor change (rolling all the public unions health care benefits into a single management system) which would hurt not one single individual person, he is ferociously opposed by the entrenched public unions.

A mayor who merely campaigned to get rid of the 'arbitration' (actually an automatic upward ratchet) for union contracts was defeated.

The UAW mindset will persist until every single employee loses their job and benefits, probably through bankruptcy.

To quote Rand Simberg: "They're not stuck on stupid, they're turned up to 11 on stupid."