I mean, why bother living in a small apartment downtown when I can get a sprawling, waste of space out in the 'burbs, and drive 20 miles each way?
Driving where?? To work? To balance the equation, cancel the conspicuous consumption, cancel the demand, cancel the work, and the result is more unemployment. So we have the root of the problem - too many people due to too much sex. What the government really wants is to meter your sex life, but that's directly correlated to vehicular mileage. Can the whole idea be this stupid?
A smart way to improve the economy would be to make SPACIOUS housing affordable, thereby encouraging families and shopping. The financial system let people lose their heads and pay more than they could earn, even for squishy little houses, which rapidly go back under water and sit in foreclosure. The government needs to expedite the process for builders to put up multi-family dwellings with thousands of square feet per family so that people don't have to waste time and energy driving. Multi-family units need less land, and built in volume may be far more affordable. It's not the quick fix desired before election day, but higher fuel prices are already a distance tax, and that's solving more problems than I can shake a stick at.
If government is looking for a way to stimulate, support the development of neighborhoods composed of high-rise multi-family units that appeal to the wealthy but average people can afford.