When I heard Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke tell Congress to leave infrastructure spending out of their economic stimulus package, my heart sank. I've been arguing for years that infrastructure spending, especially for new and improved schools, is exactly what we need to keep our social and economic momentum going. I guess I should have saved my breath. When the Fed Chairman says forget spending on schools and roads and such, then that's the end of that. Sometimes you have to know when you're beat. To say that short-term corporate thinking now prevails at the highest levels of government only belabors the obvious. When everyone from the Fed Chairman down to the President agrees so quickly on a short-term solution to a major economic crisis, then something more is at work. We are entering an age of transient wisdom. It seems our collective intelligence can only function long enough to quickly grasp some nearby consensus on how to cope with a looming crisis. It then collapses in exhaustion and leaves us to our normal public dialogue of bellowing at major television news personalities who bellow at each other and at lessor personalities. In such an age, Easter Bunny economics make perfect sense. What could be clearer than the vision of joyful taxpayers waking up to find a tax rebate in their mailbox and rushing off to spend it? How could our transient wisdom fail to grasp such a vision? If this is indeed the way we are headed, then I intend to go with the flow. In fact, I have my own modest suggestion to make which will both complement and enhance the tax rebate solution to our economic woes. Simply put, my proposal is to reduce the current standard forty hour workweek to thirty-two hours. The rationale for this is to give people time to spend their rebate money. The fatal flaw in the rebate scheme is it assumes taxpayers will have time to spend their free money. In fact, most people barely have time to spend the money they earn let alone any bonus money that shows up. What with jobs, families, rush hour traffic, household chores and reality TV, there's barely time for mandatory shopping let alone discretionary shopping. A thirty two-hour workweek will fix all that. That extra eight hours a week will give people everywhere time to get out and spend their rebates. Of course hourly pay will have to increase to maintain everyone's current spending level. And benefits will have to remain the same so people won't feel uneasy about them. But these are technical issues; the main thing is to free up time so people can shop. The real beauty of this suggestion is that federal agencies can implement it immediately with their own employees. Quick action by Congress is all that takes. In this new age of transient wisdom, quibbling over things like inflation, labor costs and productivity can be safely ignored. The main thing is to generate the fleeting consensus needed to make the change and get the job done. So contact your local Federal Reserve Bank without delay and demand that they act on the thirty-two hour workweek immediately. Call them now, time is of the essence. Under Easter Bunny economics, our motto is; if it feels good, buy it. In the age of transient wisdom, we say goodbye to things like open roads and adequate schools. But, if we move fast, we may get some enjoyable compensation to make up for them. | 
