Tuesday, February 05, 2008 

My economic stimulus plan
I firmly believe that the number one awesome way to stimulate the US economy is to legalize gay marriage. Think about it. How much do people spend on weddings? Thousands. How many new weddings would there be in the next six to eight months? Hundreds of thousands.

OK, so from a logistical standpoint, some of those couples getting married would get stuck with crappy photographers, no reception hall, and would hopefully have an aunt or uncle to make them a cake and a cousin who DJs. But this is about economics, not logistics.

It wouldn't all be caterers, hair stylists and florists who would benefit from this, either. You've got air travel, car rentals, and hotel reservations. You've got wedding registries, new cutlery, linens, small appliances. Flatware. Doodads for table centerpieces. Textiles. New outfits and new pairs of shoes. Booze. Some of the weddings would be in houses or back yards, so remodeling and landscape companies would be kept busy. I'd be willing to bet that some of those marrying couples would also look into other "settling down" type activities, too, such as home buying (once they recover from the shock of the wedding bills).

Seriously, the idea has merit. Not only would it get people spending scads of money, but it wouldn't increase the national debt by a single penny. Plus, it would make so many people happy -- it's a win-win-win!

Sigh. If only there weren't so many "one man, one woman" jerks in the world...

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Man in a bucket.  Pompidou Center, Madrid, Spain.The Roman wall looks especially fetching beneath the ugly pink modern building.trees.  ice.  purty.