>>I watched a Japanese economist on one of the talk shows (can't recall which one) and he was strongly advising against what our country is getting ready to do now. He recommended learning from Japan's mistakes.
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>Also, this stimulus package reminds me very much of what the Soviet Union did throughout the years of the communists/socialists being in power. They were creating huge government projects of building railroads, bridges, schools, and so on. And the result was millions of useless and unmotivated and poor quality jobs. The government created what was referred to (not openly, of course) as "hidden" unemployment. That is, there were three jobs where in fact only one was necessary. So the two out of three people would pretend doing the work. Or sometimes openly loitering. And when the 3rd person would realize it, he/she would stop working too. So in the end, with three people assigned to do the work, nothing was done. Or the quality was horrible. And the mentality was very simple: it all belongs to the government so why should I care. In the end, all the "reconstruction" of the Soviet Union was a total failure. To this day Russia suffers from the remnants of this mentality: government should take care of us.
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>I am concerned that Obama's government is moving into the same direction, ignoring lessons of the history.

In this case we do have a lot of infrastructure work that needs to be done and has been neglected for years. Rotting bridges and the like. If the right work is done, this could be win-win.

I read an opinion piece by John Cafferty (sp.? -- CNN commentator) putting the blame on Nancy Pelosi. He says she excluded House Republicans from participating in crafting the stimulus bill. Also for the business-as-usual pork elements that wound up in it. Very disturbing if true. This is exactly the kind of crap Americans voted against when we elected Obama. He is already finding that getting Congress past partisanship -- which is all most of them have known -- is going to be a lot easier said than done.