mary garvey-It wouldn't hurt if that was all it were used for. Unfortunately, money is much easier to steal and hoard than are food and clothing. It wouldn't jump start the economy; what they can produce, they will, and what they can't will be imported. This is a situation where there isn't much that consumer spending can do in the short term to affect the economy. The money that they earn, they can spend, but the money gained from expenditure of national resources should go to national expenditures.