In the past few days, there has been mounting discussion in the political class about some sort of "stimulus package" that should be conjured up in Congress to try to bolster the economy. Today, for example, The Wall Street Journal has this:

Amid concern about the economy, House and Senate Democrats are preparing legislation to increase growth this year, putting pressure on the White House as it mulls a plan of its own.

    I’m certainly not against using public money to support the broad public good. But, we’re missing the point here: the problem in the economy is not something that can be fixed by increasing "growth." I’ve pointed out many times (I would happily provide links but am rushing to an airplane to get home) that "growth" does not tell us necessarily how well people are doing as a whole. When you have wages stagnant, people leveraged to the hilt and broke, 47 million people with no health insurance, a trade policy that is driving down wages–then, just amping up the broad gauge of growth is not going to bring much relief to the tens of millions of people struggling to survive (neither will being simply audaciously hopeful). It may make people who already are moving and trading money and goods a bit wealthier.

    But, that is not the broad population.