Does the Government Have Business in the Cruise Industry?
This post will only be mildly related to cruises, so feel free to skip over it if you aren’t interested in the latest political stories of the day.
Remember the stimulus package of 2009? The one that was hated by the average American and loved by bankers everywhere? Well, it looks like we’re finding out that in addition to bailing out banks that were insolvent, and maybe even creating a few federal jobs along the way, that stimulus didn’t always get spent with a cost-benefit analysis in mind.
Take for instance the story of a lovely little ship called the Spirit of Boston. This beautiful cruiser is the beneficiary of $123,000 in stimulus funds. If your logic meter is installed correctly, you’re probably asking yourself why in the world a cruise ship would ever be considered a positive candidate for this handout. Well don’t worry you’re not alone. The Spirit of Boston was given an anti-terrorist makeover with this money, specifically it was equipped with a new alarm system and some other relevant security features to fully protect it from the terrorist threat.
If that didn’t quite seem unproductive enough to get your BS meter pumping, how about the $1.5 million to fix up an old remote lighthouse (located on an uninhabited island, no less), or the $100,000 to study ancient bee pollen? I don’t want to take this to rant-status, but could we not have used this money a little better?