Power & Market

Schumer to America: Help Is on the Way!

Last week, Senator Chuck Schumer reassured us eight times that “help is on the way.” Madame Vice-President and Speaker Nancy Pelosi both reiterated this stance. This should be cause for celebration! As Schumer said:

You will receive your $1,400 checks in a few weeks. Help is on the way. People are being vaccinated more quickly and more effectively than we ever imagined. Help is on the way.

The senator took things one step further, adding:

Half the children in America will no longer be in poverty. And help is on the way.

This was not the first time they’ve suggested poverty almost being irradicated, thanks to the economic jab of the government.

The day prior, during President Biden’s much anticipated address, where he announced the signing of the American Rescue plan, he told the nation:

It extends unemployment benefits. It helps small businesses. It lowers health care premiums for many. It provides food and nutrition, keeps families in their homes, and it will cut child poverty in this country in half, according to the experts.

The experts weren’t named. Perhaps they mean former head of the Fed Janet Yellen, now US Treasury Secretary, considered one of the greatest economic experts of our time. In regards to the stimulus package, she said:

We think it’s very important to have a big package [that] addresses the pain this has caused – 15 million Americans behind on their rent, 24 million adults and 12 million children who don’t have enough to eat, small businesses failing…

Sounds horrible, but she continues:

I think these checks really will provide relief and they’ll help jump-start our economy, giving people money to spend when we can get out again and go back to our former lives.

As for the Fed’s stance? We’ll have to wait, as they remain on media blackout until this Wednesday’s conclusion of the March committee meeting.

Unfortunately, when elected officials resort to claiming help is on the way, they really mean more government intervention and debt creation. The worse things get, the more “help” we apparently require. Unfortunately, the more help the State provides, the worse things inevitably get, in a perpetually vicious cycle.

Yellen provides several figures to show that many American’s are struggling, but nowhere does she show the source, and most assuredly, no one ever accuses the government or central bankers for being the cause.

One would think the monetary experts, who employ countless economists across the nation, would know these checks won’t “jumpstart our economy,” anymore than any other nation has found in increasing its money supply to create economic prosperity, whether it’s Zimbabwe or Japan.

For a very long time we have been indoctrinated into believing that giving money to the people does wonders for the economy, the $1,400 check being the latest in this perpetual train of thought. But it will not be the last. With $1,400, those in need can pay rent, or presumably eat. But they could also use it to buy stocks or cryptocurrency…. Of course, few people ask where this money comes from, what would happen if America’s central bank stopped buying America’s debt, or any other negative consequence of these inflationist policies.

If help is on the way, rest assured, it will not come from the government nor the Federal Reserve. It can only come from social cooperation, individual and voluntary interactions. The problem is that government and central banks represent the exact opposite of social cooperation. Should this be the help society is seeking, then “no,” help is not on the way. And when things inevitably get worse, we’ll be offered even more help.

image/svg+xml
Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.
What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. 

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Become a Member
Mises Institute