[vivekd]

There is no such thing as "more money than you can spend" basic human nature. The issue is "more money in the system than the system is producing". And that's exactly what the digging holes and filling it system is about. . . it's actually an example that Keynes himself thought up to describe his theory of how to get out of the depression. And as great a man as Keynes was, unfortunately he was wrong because he didn't have the benefit of research into monetary policy. It'll be the same thing as if you printed a whole wackload of money and set it loose in the system.

[nhaehnle]

I think you misread my comment. I wrote "more income that they can spend", not "more income than they can spend".

As for the whole Keynes being wrong thing, you didn't actually address what I wrote about inflation and how giving people a fixed amount of money for work (even if it's "make work") is self-stabilizing.

Also, to your "more money in the system than the system is producing": Keep in mind that the amount that the system is producing is not a fixed quantity. It's variable and part of the whole dynamics.