Bad idea or not?

I half-heard on the news this morning (I put the local news on, even though it tends to be rather stupid - I think I commented that they have a "Let's Terrify the Mommies" segment about child development and risks a child could face, and "Relationships for Idiots" segment where they dish out advice that even someone as relationally-challenged as I am is aware of. And no, those aren't the real names of the segments, of course) that the Feds are talking giving everyone in the U.S. a check - $800 for singles, $1600 for couples, to "stimulate the economy."

dot-dash-dash, dash, dot-dot-dash-dot?

(hee. At least a few people will get that. And no, I don't KNOW it, I had to look it up.)

Please - someone with more economic smarts than I have, tell me why this is a good idea? (I mean, if it is). I tend to think it's rather extremely a bad idea. For one thing: where is the gummint going to get this money? We already have a sizable national debt. Money has to come FROM somewhere.

Second, I can't help thinking that giving American consumers money is kind of like giving an 18 year old a 12-pack of beer on a Friday night. But that may just be because I know a number of people - otherwise intelligent and reasonable people - who have shocking levels of credit card debt, multiple mortgages, etc. because they are into "keeping up with the Joneses."

I also don't like the implication - which may be purely my stupidhead local news writers being stupid again - that we're all expected to spend this money, that to do otherwise is somehow unpatriotic. Because if you give me $800? Unless I need something, like, say, a new refrigerator, I will not be able to spend it. I cannot go out and merrily blow $800 on things I do not need. ($200, mmmmmmaybe, but not $800). I spent too many years as an impoverished grad student for that. If this comes to pass, and I get that check, it's either going straight into my savings account, or I'm figuring out some way to invest it. (Well, investing stimulates the economy, no?)

I don't know. I guess I read too much WWII history of rationing and encouraging people to buy less and such to be able to be comfortable with the concept of spending like a drunken sailor being my patriotic duty. I realize the world is a very different place now. (But then again - if I spent my $800 on a bunch of Chinese-made crap, is that really going to help our economy in the long term? I mean, other than the store or catalog I buy said crap out of?)

It also bothers me, I think, because it's just another instance (or so it seems to me) of the government saying, "Come here. Come over here to Mommy Gummint and have a suckle of her sugary teat." And you know? I don't like being obligated. And I think this will lead to some kind of obligation down the line. (And I get kind of uncomfortable with too many government handouts - because like the old saying, he who pays the piper calls the tune, and I could see some day in the future where it's said, "Well, you know, we did all these things for you, the least you can do is...." where the "..." is something I will find distasteful.

So I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong to be irritated at the Feds for looking at the economy and going "mmmmm, something's not right, let's throw THIS into the mix and see if it works." Maybe I'm just analogizing too much from a person I know who when, say, his computer's not working right, he starts randomly pushing buttons and screws the thing up MORE, instead of standing back and going, "Let me give this a little while to see if it corrects itself."