Government “Helping” People
It seems I'm hearing a lot on the radio and online about how the government programs since the financial crisis have "helped" people. Be it from HAMP, TARP, unemployment insurance, increased student loans, cash for clunkers, or any other crazy scheme the government has tried over the past few years.
One thing that it seems people never want to talk about is the flip side of that equation. The government hoped that HAMP would keep millions of people in their houses. Even ignoring the fact that only 1.4 million have gone through the trial, and less than half of that (550,000) have had their modifications made permanent, we should be asking ourselves if these programs are helping people overall.
What I mean by that is, say the government expected to "help" 5 million people keep their homes with HAMP, that means that 295+ million people are going to be hurt by having to pay for it either through higher taxes, higher inflation, depressed future earnings, or a combination of all three!
Additionally, these higher taxes/costs/burdens on the rest of us, will likely result in fewer job opportunities, more unemployment, and thus more foreclosures in the future.
So does hurting 295+ million people outweigh helping a potential 5 million?
It's also easy to look at specific dollar amounts spent on various programs and argue that they are insignificant and really won't have that big of an impact in the grand scheme of things. This is bad logic. The thousands and thousands of government programs like these add up and amount to something very large and very real. The burden placed on each of us (businesses, too) by these programs is a very real and present drag on the economy.
If we looked at all government programs and evaluated them in this way, we'd be much more likely to have a small and limited government -- not to mention more rights, freedoms, and security.
Whenever someone mentions how many people the government "helped," subtract that number from 300 million to see just how many people are paying for it. Is it worth the cost?