John Stossel: "Grateful for small favors"

Here's John Stossel explaining what a joke it is for the Obama Administration to claim their so-called economic stimulus spending and recovery plans have done anything demonstrably positive. His concluding paragraphs:

As I wrote in February: "Given time, the economy, unless totally crippled by government intervention, will regenerate itself. That's because an economy is not a machine that needs jumpstarting. It is people who have objectives they want to achieve. They will not sit on their hands forever waiting for government to 'fix' things. Instead, they work to overcome obstacles to get what they want. Some banks are struggling, but there are still people who want to lend money and people who want to borrow it. They will find each other without government help".

But I underestimated this administration. I expected it to say, in the face of continued rising unemployment, that the "stimulus" wasn't big enough. Instead, it claims success.

I suppose I should be relieved. Claiming success is far less destructive than another irresponsible "stimulus." I'm grateful for small favors.

He absolutely right; the reality which the phrase "the economy" describes is something which can't be reduced to static machinery. It's an aggregate of the many individual decisions and actions made by people. Reminds me of the great line by Bruce Willis in the latest Die Hard movie, "It's not a system, it's a country!"