additional debate over health care reform

[larrybard]

emayer wrote:

If one absolutely needs to blow money, could these not have been spaced out and used elsewhere? How about putting the stimulus money toward repaving roads which in many areas are a greater safety risk? Better yet, how about not borrowing from the Chinese or taking our hard earned money for excessive projects? I posted this as a glaring example (sorry for the pun!) of what's being wasted throughout the country. I'm appalled at the lack of common sense and restraint in such difficult times.

Reminds me of what Milton Friedman once said. Friedman visited China in the early 1960s and was taken by a government official to see a public works project. Chinese workers were building a canal. Friedman was struck by seeing everyone digging the canal with shovels. Friedman asked the official, "why no heavy earth-moving equipment?" The official said, "oh, this is a jobs program." So Friedman then says to the official, "then why don't you just give them spoons instead of shovels to create even more jobs?"