In the article, "The Trade-Offs in the Stimulus Package" posted on CQpolitics.com by the author Madison Powers, the trade offs between the short term and long term are discussed. They consider short term as an efficiency problem and the long term as an infrastructure problem; the thought process behind this comes from the general question of how to quickly choose the correct things to do in this situation.
We must solve the immediate crisis first, we have no say in if we will do it or not, only how we will accomplish it. Now, what we do have to think about is what to invest in and what is the best way to do it; he called this 'bang for your buck' vs 'infasctruture'. Obviously, if we get tunnel vision on specifically the short term the problem will only repeat itself, because the problem has to do with the system. If you wake up, the water on the counter is boiling, the wax on your nightstand is dripping and you feel hot, what problem should you fix first? You more than likely guessed it, none of them, the house is on fire. This metaphor directly relates with what Madison is saying. If we hand out money to everyone, it will do nothing but fix the boiling water. If we start building buildings arbitrarily, it will merely fix the wax dripping onto the floor. If we dump all the water in Lake Wylie onto the house to put it out, we have wasted far too many resources that we can afford to give; I'm sure you get what I'm saying at this point. We must take a step back, assess the situation and understand how to put out the burning house entirely and efficiently without being distracted by the immediate problems that belly the real problems at hand.