What's in it for you and me?

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I can only shake my head sadly for the United States. Why? You can perform the "experiment" yourself. Just 'google' the phrase "Stimulus Package: What's in it for you?"

Ten or twelve years ago we seemed to be on a course of common sense. In those ancient days we thought that a tax and government spending program should be likened to knocking on your neighbor's door and demanding money. It had better be a very good reason the separate the friend next door from his or her money -- and should only be done sparingly.

If we applied that logic today, a number of folks seem to think its acceptable to knock on the door of the person living next door and demanding money to help pay for one's own personal mortgage, or any other of the thousands of pork items attached to the stimulus bill.

In fact, according to an article on this subject in the most recent AARP Bulletin, we are going next door and demanding our neighbors pay the state and local taxes on any new automobile we purchase in 2009. In fact, for those of us who are retired, the author of the item seems to think its OK for us to walk over to the neighbor's house and demand $250 each, cash on the barrel head, so that we personally can stimulate the economy at our discretion.

Do you remember when neighborliness was helping the person next door? Now Congress and this president have seemed to redefined the term more along the lines of shaking down that individual.

Have we become a nation of financial leeches on a personal level? Is all we ask "What's in it for me?"

The previous administration at least kept the focus on rescuing the banking industry - for a while. Confidence in the banking system -- meaning trusting that the bank will have money there when you need to withdraw it -- is a societal essential. But that administration did not seem sure which banks should fail and which should survive, leaving the perception that there were "personal favorites" within the industry. Then when the problem of unregulated derivatives (a kind of insurance in some ways) was understood, the rescue moved to investment banking and insurance companies like AIG.

Yes, that administration effectively printed money which did not exist to fund the initial TARP plan. That plan tossed our neighbor's money at some in the banking and insurance industry. How simple would it have been to use the money to shore up FDIC and simply protect each individuals bank account, while letting the weak fail no matter who they were?

The new administration and its Congress have done that twice more and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already hinting that another batch of money needs to be printed to give out in pet projects under the rubric of "stimulus." What are some of the things we are demanding our neighbors pay for? A list from SelfInvestor:

$20 billion for school renovations and $79 billion to avoid education related layoffs

$87 billion for Medicaid

$30 billion goes to road projects

$27 billion to continue unemployment insurance benefits

$20 billion for food stamps

$20 billion to digitize medical records

$8 billion for renewable energies

$7 billion for modernizing federal buildings

$6 billion for mass transit

$5 billion for for the construction and repair of public housing

$4 billion for community activist programs such as ACORN

$2 billion for child care subsidies

$650 million for coupons for digital TV conversions

$400 million for global warming research

$335 million for STD prevention

$50 million for National Endowment of the Arts

Dear Neighbor: We demand you pay for these things!