In China when I ask people about how the economic crisis effected them, they say there were a couple months when the economy was bad and people were worried but now things are even better than before and credit goes completely to the government. One thing stimulus money did was subsidize purchases of domestically made home appliances which both offset the drop in international purchases and raised the standard of living for lots of people, especially in the rural areas, who until now preferred saving to modern gadgets (who really needs a fridge anyway?) Clearly the government here has a lot of benefits that the US doesn’t have – no people clambering for dog parks – but they got it done.