Is Free Really Free? the Cost of Handouts

Is Free Really Free? The cost of Handouts….

Every day in the United States of America there are products that are just handed out as if the cost absolutely nothing. Do these free products really have a cost? To what extent are they helping or hurting our economy and our motivation to better ourselves. Some of the main freebies our country has been offered recently and some are still being offered to this day. The stimulus of 2009 and US Welfare benefits may be free in the beginning to the recipients, but are they free in the long run?

Sometimes it is better to not receive help. Help sounds like a good thing, but when the after effects can be catastrophic help should be turned away. For instance, let’s take into account how the $787 billion dollar stimulus checks sent from Washington, DC helped the economy. Governors and state legislators were happy to accept this so called “free money”, and even lobby for more. The states were not able to just spend this money, the money came with restrictions. In order for states to receive the money, they had to promise not to cut spending below 2007 levels in programmatic areas; such as k-12 schools, higher education, Medicaid and highways. (Laffer, Moore, and Williams 56-57)

It is debatable whether or not state legislators even had a clue as to how the financial obligations they were committing themselves to were going to affect the state. The “maintenance of effort” allowed congress to completely dictate which programs could or could not be cut. (Laffer, Moore, and Williams 57)

The states ended up in an even bigger hole than they were in to begin with. All of this so called “free money” came with such restrictions; the states were unable to make the cuts that needed to be made. Money was forced into programs that there wasn’t going to be any money to fund in the future. How were the programs going to be financed in the once the stimulus money ran