A blog post details why Frederic Bastiat — the candlemakers' advocate — would have supported Obama's stimulus package. From his point of view, intervention in times of crisis is a good thing and is crucial for the forward movement of the economy, IF there has been a crisis. (To redistribute unnecessarily, he argues, would be a "ruinous hoax.")
When the stimulus package was presented, legislators on both sides referenced the New Deal — some for its successes (the left), and others for its supposed proven inability to fix the Depression (the right). Is creating work — seemingly, out of thin air — a productive economic solution?
The fundamental underlying debate is related to the argument about the boy and his baseball: Are we better off with a broken window, if it means that we get to fix it? Nearly all sides of the debate would argue against deliberately breaking the window, but the question of what to do when the window shatters because of a hurricane remains. Will the recent earthquake be good for Haitian development? Or will it set the small nation back — further into poverty than it already was?
There is the idealistic hope that the deep plummet into wreckage will bring the Haitian people together, help them to better understand each other and move forward into a more equitable society. There is the reality, presented by the United Nations, that no matter what efforts are put forth, true recovery will "take decades." And then there is the underlying cynicism (or reality), that even if the infrastructure can be rebuilt (albeit with extensive outside aid), the nation will never change unless it can alter its culture, government and values.
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