PEA RIDGE — The city of Fayetteville got $700,000 in green stim ulus grants to do things like bolt solar cells onto the roofs of downtown buildings. Someone asked me what I thought of the matter.

There are about 70,000 souls in Fayetteville, so that is $10 per resident spent on stuff that is for (some of) them, but maybe not spent in a way they would want if they could do anything with the 10 dollars. What did it cost them? Well, if there was 700 billion spent on the stimulus, then divided among 300 million Americans it means that the amount put on the nation's credit card for each citizen is $2,333. It does not seem like the stimulus plan has cost that much, because the money at this point has simply been borrowed against your future earnings, not subtracted from your paycheck.

Ten dollars spent on something that is not my first choice to buy isvery little return on the government's commitment of $2,333 of my future earnings. I hope you see it that way, too, but it seems like the country is full of shortsighted suckers. There are plenty of people who look at the "benefits" and ignore the costs. They are thrilled that their government threw them a few crumbs while it buys everything in the gourmet bread store and gives it to its friends using the sucker's credit card.

Money spent on pork will be spent less rationally than money spent by private citizens, because when true costs are hidden, people will buy things that they ordinarily would not buy.

Here is a story to demonstrate the above principle.

Imagine that your state senator gets a special bill passed. Every family in Pea Ridge gets a new sofa for free! In order to fund this legislation, a special tax of $500 was levied on every family in Gravette. The senator from Gravette got a little hot under the collar when this passed, but some other guys owed your guy a favor, so the votes were there.

You join the community in lauding your senator as great statesman. Your only mild regret is that your cur rent sofa is only two years old, so you don't need a new one that badly. In fact you were saving for a new refrigerator. Still, you are not about to let this spoil your good mood, besides your wife is anxious to go pick out the sofa! Moving services and furniture stores ought to be busy.

This could add jobs to the community!

Things seem great, even though your wife spent$100 of the money you were saving for that refrigerator to buy knickknacks to go along with that free sofa. Then you get your income tax bill. To your shock, it is $500 higher than last year. Outraged, you demand to know why. It turns out that every family in Pea Ridge is being assessed a $500 tax in order to buy a new refrigerator for every family in Berryville. In disgust, you kick the cat, and curse at that thieving Berryville senator. Now you can't afford to buy your own 'fridge. The appliance store guy needs the business. This could cost the community jobs!

The moral of the story?

In the long run, we all wind up with less of what we want by getting "free" pork. Once again, as we find with every area of reality, what seems morally wrong, but the "smart move" in the short run turns out to be both morally wrong and stupid when viewed in the long run.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 09/30/2009