Quote from Ricter:
Spending is not out of control, it's relatively large because our social safety net, such as it is, is carrying a larger than normal load, and because revenues are sharply down. When new jobs start multiplying, that spending will shrink at the same time that revenue starts growing, and the deficit will look a lot more manageable. That's not to say that in the long run the deficit won't need direct management, but it is to say that in the short run, spending cuts should not be considered the only response to the crisis. I think big cuts would have the opposite effect on our prospects for new job creation, for example we're already seeing the hemorrhaging of government jobs "propping" up the unemployment rate . I've said this before, stimulus spending, still necessary, must start going to the component of the economy that will spend it, not to that component which merely hoards it. I don't think we should merely cut checks for families, I have my doubts about that. I think we need a WPA type solution.
Now I have better understanding of the perch that you sit atop of...The key phrase "When new jobs start multiplying..." That is DOA. If anything the US, through all of its shenanigans in the past several years, has ensured that jobs are screaming out of here. They aren't coming back, not soon, maybe not ever. We lived thru several sucessive credit bubbles, which grossly exagerrated the number of jobs to begin with (i.e. we had entire industries running on bubble-nomics that were "one off's", not structural.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the growth in public sector employment and benefits was a stop gap measure towards masking the hemorraging of private sector employment. Now that the private sector is either relocating (out of the country OR out of the most indebted states), there is a NEW structural imbalance that will not just "work itself out" as you seem to imply in your response.
In response to some other points you've made, I look at it in an entirely different light. Wage and labor arbitrage are the game and these are the exact ingredients that put Western nations at a massive disadvantage and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Why would I open up shop here and deal with massive regulations and an extremely high cost of labor if I can do it elsewhere for a fraction of the cost?