Quote:
Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed
Does the WRP really think the money stays in the economy? many people would just spend the money of Electronics, etc. The money is going to the manufacturers in other counties, and the retailers who have head offices in other countries.
Spending the money on infrastructure creates hundreds of jobs, for workers who will spend their income here, and the profits for the companies that do the work will generally stay here too, and then the province receives tax back from those companies.
The billion dollars a year would allow for huge investments in public transportation, or other things that would benefit many, but have not been built because of the sheer cost to get them going.
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I'm sure all the equipment and implements used to build the added infrastructure are all manufactured in Alberta? Maybe some of the $300 Danielle Dollars would go to '100% Made in Alberta prostitutes' at new Red Light districts!
While the concept of infrastructure spending can most definately be beneficial vs. immediate consumption, we should caution to not extend your arguement too far as it would imply that the economy would perform much better if only the good people in Edmonton had their hands on more of our money to intelligently command it's most efficient allocation.
At some point (And I'm not necessarily saying the arguement here in Alberta is at this level), some infrastructure projects are actually white elephants. Perfect example would be if the province jacked taxes and then built a high-speed train between Calgary and Edmonton. In that case not only would the province be wasting capital funds on a project that has no economics, but it would also be indenturing the budget to pay it's operating costs forever into the future.
The economic arguement is not as cut and dry as simply saying infrastructure projects = good, refund cheques = bad. Often the sum of individual market decisions on transactions beats how a bunch of politicians decide.