These Keynesian ideas are a big part of what caused this mess in the first place. We cannot simply spend our way out of this. We need to stop overspending on consumption and start saving and producing. This is the only way to create a sustainable economy in the long term.
These short sighted measures, merely delay the inevitable, and delay the restructuring process.
Remember also, that the government doesn't actually have any money of its own to hand out. It must get the money by taxing, borrowing or deflating the currency.
I didn't realize it was so easy to dichotomize everyone and classify them as either rich or poor.
All else being equal, I believe society is better off its resources are more equally distributed than less. However, the belief that the government can achieve this without extremely damaging consequences, or even at all, is a fantasy.
We cannot simply 'tax the rich more' indefinitely. Read about the Laffer Curve (
Laffer curve) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Taxing the rich excessively also reduces peoples incentive to work hard and come up with innovative ideas. If you take this well intentioned idea too far it can end up making everyone worse off.
This societal collapse argument is simply not true. The wages of unskilled westerners could fall massively before they lost their intensive to work or could barely afford basic living expenses. In any case, it is not relevant to a $1000 stimulus package.
Basically because it is not necessary. We already have adequate social security and socialised education and healthcare. In many ways these are good policies.
Giving people lump sum payments is extremely foolish. It encourages wasteful consumption. If you wanted to help this disadvanted, the money would be much better invested in our education system.