Priming The Pumps Case Solution

For instance, it was a source of finance for about 9 water and sewerage related projects of the company that were on hold before due to unavailability of the funds. However, it must be kept into consideration that these projects were planned by the administration anyway and the role of the government as ‘priming the pump’ initiated the projects that will eventually prove to be a source of benefit for the general public in a form of better water and sewerage related facilities. Moreover, availability of funds generated additional income and work for people employed in that sector. This added effect would not have been possible from private sources due to bad economic conditions at that time. So, it can be said that though primary benefit of the stimulus rests within the few hands like major companies in the sector, it can have a trickledown effect on the general population and workers if, those funds are properly utilized.

2. Based on this case, would you say that government spending was competing with the private sector for the scarce resources? 

No, evidence for this proposition is not quite strong. On the contrary, government provided $7 billion to the water management sector in the form of Recovery Act, which was very few compared to the overall industry expenditure of $100 billion on their projects. This implied that still most of the funding was coming from the private sources. Even though, Garney was able to secure funds for nine of its projects under the government scheme, it accounted for only 10% of its total business. It had to secure 90% of its project funds from either the personal equity or the private sources. Moreover, when the performance of the company was evaluated, the statistics were less encouraging than the period two years ago, even in the presence of government stimulus. So, if the belief of the desirability of fiscal expansion is assumed, the sector was in a need of more governmental funding to improve its profitability. Therefore, the government funding is acting as an aid to the private sector rather than competition.