re: The Onion Understands Keynesianism

Writes Mark Johannes:

Have been following your blog for a little while and enjoy it immensely. Your posting about the Onion piece reminded me of stories my grandfather told me a number of years ago about his days working for the WPA: Grandpa went to work at Camp Ripley in central Minnesota. He told about times when there wasn’t any work to do so the crews were sent out to shovel snow off to one side of the road. When they got to the end of the road they would turn around and shovel the snow off to the other side of the road! I asked him how he could stand doing such meaningless work. He replied that “If you didn’t want to work, you got sent home.”

He also talked about how rows of motorcycles, still in their crates, were lined up and a bulldozer would roll over them and crush them. Then they would bury them. Or other times where cases and cases of wrenches were delivered to Camp and just buried. I remember asking, “Why would they do that?” To which he replied, “So someone working in a factory somewhere could make more.”

I am afraid that the Onion may not be as satirical as we would hope.

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5:52 pm on January 12, 2011