"As a financial educator, I can't say that's a good thing to do, go out and spend," said Ann House, Utah State University Extension assistant professor in family finance and debt management. "We've got a government telling us ... that's good for the country. But what's good for the country is how we're doing individually."

According to a 2008 America Saves survey, reported by the American Bankers Association, just 28 percent of people nationwide put away 10 percent of their income. And just 57 percent of those surveyed sock away enough for retirement.

A couple of people interviewed at the 3300 South TRAX station last week said paying bills was a priority for them in thinking about how to spend their economic-stimulus checks. One man said he was earmarking the cash for upcoming medical bills.

Millcreek resident Rob Bednar believes the money was intended for a different purpose. He plans to buy a fishing boat.

"My assumption is, the stimulus package is to boost retail sales," Bednar said. "To pay off credit-card debt, that's not the aim."

Thirteen percent of the survey respondents cited other ways they planned to spend the money, including buying a computer, fixing up their houses — even pre-purchasing a headstone.

The government's 2001 stimulus package may have helped the economy. In the first half of the year, the economy was in a recession. But after the rebates were mailed out, personal consumption expenditures rose, according to the Princeton University study, "Household Expenditure and the Income Tax Rebates of 2001." The study found two-thirds of the rebates were spent within a few months. The recession was over by year's end.

But the study's authors couldn't say whether the recession ended as a result of the stimulus, which also came with a tax cut, or because of other factors.

Jeff Thredgold, Zions Bank's chief economist, says the stimulus checks could jump-start the economy a bit, if spent on goods and services. Still, he notes, the government is borrowing the money to provide the checks, a move that essentially worsens the national deficit, which could reach $450 billion this year.

"Like everything else in the economy, there's good and bad news to each side of the issue," Thredgold said.

Today's economy also is much different than it was in 2001, with a declining dollar, rising foreclosures and bankruptcies, a declining dollar and increasing prices of food and gasoline.

"For people who've gotten themselves in serious financial problems ... carrying a bitty $600 check is not going to do anything," said Pamela Perlich, a senior research economist at the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

"What's wrong with the economy now is all the problems with the financial market," she said. "This is going to have no impact on that at all. I think in most cases, it will just get lost in people's budgets."

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com