Mother Nature’s Stimulus Package
Last issue, I complained about being snubbed by the host of the June hail storm which created a cash feast for building contractors and auto body repair shops. Then in the midst of cursing the endless rain of September, it dawned on me that Mother Nature has been implementing her own economic stimulus package.
I’ve lived in the same building for 35 years and never had water spouting through cracks in my basement floor. With no end in sight, it quickly became apparent this was no sponge and towel operation. I needed some BP-type expertise in containing deep-water gushers.
When I hopped into my truck and headed towards Mankato, I didn’t realize how puny my problem was compared to others in the area. The parking lot of the home center was mobbed. Inside the store I saw shopping carts loaded with cleaning supplies, hoses, fans, pails and mops. I made my way to the plumbing department and saw nearly empty shelves where rows of cartons were normally stacked. “Do you have any sumpless pumps?” I asked. An energized clerk cocked his thumb and fired his index finger at a couple of remaining boxes. “The pump of the hour,” he exclaimed.
A day earlier I had no intention of going to the store; no intention of spending money. Yet there I was, credit card in hand – the checker’s scanner merrily beeping away: one utility pump, one automatic on/off sensor, one jar of dry roasted peanuts and assorted sundries. The $150 I shelled out was a mere drop in a torrent of money flowing from person to person, business to business, town to town. The unexpected infusion of cash into local economies along detour routes and a general redirection of funds throughout the area wasn’t the result of some late night legislative session. Someone upstairs simply left the water running
Economic stimulation has a lot to do with overcoming reluctance to spend and invest. It takes action to initiate a sustainable reaction. I find it curious how quickly and simply an act of nature can create just such a result, and how painful and laborious it is for society to accomplish the same task. Turning to government for simple and direct action is rarely the shortest distance to any point. Our elected representatives spend months debating the need for action, formulating strategies, hammering out compromises, fixing cost, deciding who will pay the cost and who will ultimately receive the benefits. Politics dictate a further expenditure of time for grandstanding and posturing to ensure that if things go wrong, the ladies and gents on the other side of the aisle are the ones who look like fools. Once an idea runs the political gauntlet and is enacted, the rest of us are obliged to take pot shots and deride the stupidity of the plan. Love thy neighbor? Not if he’s getting a tax break and I’m not.
Nature sidesteps the “hubbubary” and cuts to the chase. Whip up the wind, knock out the lights, back up the sewers, and in a matter of minutes, people will open their pocketbooks without hesitation. What’s more, they will open their hearts in ways never seen with mandated programs. It’s one of the ironies of natural calamity that the worse it is, the better we become as people. Jealousy and envy are laid by the way to get on with the job at hand. The stories of friends and strangers helping one another throughout the duration of widespread regional flooding bears testament to that fact.
There was a time when some thought (and perhaps still do) our government could manipulate weather patterns to create tornadoes and other natural disasters. If true, the government holds a powerful tool for covertly stimulating the economy in ways everyone would accept. If the government has overlooked this possibility, I won’t be the one to call attention to it. A person can only tolerate so much lousy weather, and as I once learned from a margarine commercial, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”
Have a profitable day,
Jeff Irish
