I am no expert on the economy. Concerning economics,I often believe whatever I have last read that makes sense. However, after reading several blogs and reader comments concerning the economic stimulus and the bailout programs I decided to perform my own economic test.
One of the recurring themes I read is the Internet "experts" plan that instead of handing multi-billions of dollars to Wall Street bankers and failing car manufacturers, the government should simply give every American taxpayer $1 million to stimulate the economy.
Even with my lack of economic knowledge that sounds like it might work. That many people, somewhere around 110 million by Census figures, would be pumping a lot of money back into the economy.
Even I, however, know that the $1 million figure is high. So, I ciphered, with the help of my computer calculator a more modest figure of $500,000 for each taxpayer only over the age of 50.
I figure if you gave everyone over 50 $500,000, it would replenish their 401 (k)s, and then some, and allow for a lot of money being pumped into the economy and the extra money would go into retirement accounts, thereby allowing a lot of workers to retire on time, thereby opening up jobs for others. Sounds logical to me.
However, that $500,000 tab, even for those over 50 - and that's around 70 million people - would come to $35 trillion (trillion with a t). Knock it down to $30,000 per, a lot less and not enough to make up for lost retirement money, and it still comes to more than $2 trillion.
It was a nice thought, but even my inefficient economic mind realizes that such a plan is unrealistic. Too bad, I had plans for half a million dollars. Oh, well, there's always the Powerball.
