Only 18 percent of Americans say the stimulus “has done anything to help improve their personal situation,” according to a USA Today poll. When it comes to the $300 million in tax cuts given out in small amounts in each paycheck, the whole point was for people not to notice them. Conor Clarke in the Atlantic reacts appropriately:
The simple fact that people don’t notice the stimulus dollars is not affirmative evidence that the stimulus is working. (Since it’s possible to imagine people saving money they don’t notice.) But the mere fact that most people tell pollsters they don’t notice the stimulus is not evidence one way or another. Relax, USA Today.
Tags: mental accounting
August 19, 2009 at 11:26 pm |
I actually adjusted my withholdings from zero to 3 in the same paycheck as the stimulus tax cuts started, so I saw a huge swing in income. I don’t exactly how much is from the stimulus, though.
August 20, 2009 at 7:03 am |
Surely the correct counter-factual is what would happen to people’s pay packet if there were no stimulus. For example, they might not even have a job were it not for the stimulus.
After all, you stimulate an under-performing economy to prevent decline, not to make it grow…