It seems to be official, the Democrats and Republicans are planning to jump start the American economy by passing out checks. And of course the money is borrowed, placing each American deeper in debt. The checks may be coming in May. The situation is this, most Americans, are unwilling by personal choice to go deeper in debt for the consumer products that the government thinks we need to buy. So they create an illusion, borrowing the money at the governmental level, and passing it around to give the false impression that it is free, but encumbering some unborn Americans with the responsibility to pay it back.

But real free is when you make things yourself, or fix things or grow things or give things to each other. A few of us won't be deceived.

I bought some walnut and cherry lumber today. It wasn't free but cost only $1.16 per board foot. It is green and I'll air dry it under cover for about 3 months and then move it into the barn for another year or so before it can be used. If I had bought it dry and ready to use, it would have cost twice as much. If I were to pay myself for the time spent in handling it, it could be measured as costing more than $1.16 per board foot. But when no money changes hands, there is no measurable impact on the economy. But if I make something from it, is it any less real?

We are so fixated on the things that exist only in the cerebellum. We concern ourselves not with things themselves but measurements of things, and there is the idea that if it can't be measured and controlled, it is of no consequence. But before there was an "economy", people were living and caring for each other, and regardless of what happens to the "economy" we will continue to do so.