Spending For a Purpose

How 'bout this as a means to stimulate the economy? You've heard of food stamps, right? Well, how about, in addition to giving those to people, we give them something called "merchandise stamps", too? They'd be basically just like cash BUT, instead of them being something that people can squirrel away (i.e., save) and/or pay down preexisting debt, they have an expiration date on them. People HAVE TO spend them before that time frame. If they don't, then they forfeit any potential purchasing power........................................................What do you think, folks? Me, I'm thinking that this would be an especially effective tool for the middle class (and, yes, I'd give them the food stamps, too). This, I'm saying, in that poor people (for whatever the reason) are far more likely to spend their rebate check than the middle class. Providing the latter group with an added incentive to make those types of purchases that would facilitate job growth - I don't know, folks, that would seem to make a boat-load of sense to me........................................................Now, obviously, this would only be a short-term solution. To get the economy moving forward for the long-term would no doubt require more of a tax-based incentive. My preference would be to cut the tax rates for everybody but, clearly, if that was not a political feasibility (as it appears to be the case today), yes, I'd focus things more on the middle class. I mean, they're the group that's basically gotten shafted the most (though, yes, the working poor have had a nasty go of it, too) the past 30 years, right?