More Austerity Hysteria, California Style Edition

Despite the fact that paying state employees wages is actually one of the most direct methods to get state government money back into the private sector as stimulus (as state employees need to buy groceries, clothes, computers, cars and houses too), The Governator is taking that money out of the state economy.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said 150,000 government workers must begin taking time off without pay starting Aug. 20 following a court ruling lifting an injunction temporarily blocking the furloughs.

The California Supreme Court, saying it would review the governor’s plan, stayed decisions by lower courts that had halted the furloughs. Schwarzenegger directed state workers to take three unpaid days off each month to save cash. The high court set a Sept. 8 hearing on a challenge to the order.

Three days a month furlough is so much nicer sounding than "15% pay cut effective immdiately."  State employees patronize private sector businesses too.  Only now, not as much.  I fail to see how this does anything other than to cause suffering.

It's certainly not going to help California's economy.