Patriotic Retirement
Published Fri, Apr 10 2009 8:58 AM
My friend Karma forwarded an interesting piece of e-mail with a proposed solution to the economic problems we're having. According to the original e-mail this was a suggestion from a respondent to an article in the St. Petersburg Times business section.
Dear Mr. President,
Patriotic retirement: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force - pay them $1 million apiece severance with the following stipulations:
- They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
- They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.
- They either buy a house/pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.
Can't get any easier than that.
It doesn't seem like such a bad idea to me, at least on the face of it. I can’t help wondering if the solution could be that simple. But then, this would be a one-time shot in the arm for the economy. It might be a kick-start, but our economy is a living, vibrant thing that depends on ongoing economic activity.
This provides no means to ensure that. Maybe if the government ended a few of the ridiculous spending programs it has in place and cut taxes again it might have a chance.
After all, it doesn’t do much good to give a patient a shot in the arm while you’re holding a pillow over his mouth and nose.
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David responded with:
 | Let's see... two of us. ~$25K for two new cars that would suit our needs. ~$4k for remaining mortgage. Would leave enough to supplement our retirements.
BUT, as you said, a mere shot in the arm, and how much beneficial, intelligent experience would be excised thereby? (Probably not all that much, as those who have beneficial intelligence and the experience it has bought might be loathe to substitute a dollar-degraded million for what they could provide on their own... ) |
ablur responded with:
 | This leads into my piece, How many Trillion Will That Cost?. I analyzed a trillion dollars and came up with some interesting points.
The key to recovery is business taxes. Until we drastically cut the taxes on business the jobs will continue to go over seas.
America averages 38.5% tax. Tax rates vary by state from 42%(Iowa) to 35%(Federal Only). The highest business tax in the world is 40%(Japan). The lowest is 12.5%(Ireland). Could you imagine how fast business would flock here if ours was closer to Ireland? |
Mustang responded with:
 | There are 300 million people in this country; if the government had given each one $2 million to spend as they see fit, it would have corrected the housing problem, bailed out GM and Chrysler, and put bunches of Americans back to work. It would have cost future Americans far less than the $10 trillion.
Bottom line: Washington politicians are idiots. |
Perri Nelson responded with: Floating boats
 | As I said, it sounds nice on the surface. Still, money is merely a counter, representing energy or effort. It's only value as a medium of exchange comes when it must be earned. If tomorrow every man, woman, and child in the United States were to find that they had a bank account filled with two million dollars, that two million dollars would be worthless as a medium of exchange. Why? Because it wouldn't be scarce, and there would be no connection to productivity. Prices couldn't stay the same if everyone had millions of dollars. What's a couple of bucks worth if you already have two million after all? On the other hand, when money is hard to come by and requires productive effort to earn, then, and only then does it truly have value. This is why in a capitalist system there will always be inequities in the distribution of wealth. Some will work harder (or “smarter”) and thereby accumulate more than others. But, if as the socialists and the communists dream, if as those that espouse “social justice” would have it, all were reduced to the same state and all shared freely from the labors of all, then no man (or woman) would have incentive to be productive. It was tried long before Karl Marx claimed the idea for the communists. It failed in Plymouth. It failed in Virginia. It has failed everywhere it has been tried. Money for nothing. They say you get what you pay for. Money for nothing is ultimately worth just that — nothing. |
Angel responded with:
 | your last line says it all!..HAPPY HOLIDAYS! |
Becky Bowers responded with:
 | This appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on April 12:
Editor's note: In February we published reader suggestions — serious and otherwise — for how to fix the economic crisis. This was one of them (not "the winner" as some message boards have suggested):
"There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force … pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations. They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings — unemployment fixed. They buy new American cars. Forty million cars ordered — auto industry fixed. They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage — housing crisis fixed."
We didn't print that it would cost $4 trillion, or less than the bailout. But readers are right that this would cost $40 trillion — nearly three times the national gross domestic product and nearly four times the national debt. So, a fun idea? Sure, just like making pro athletes foot the bailout bill, investing in a national bullet train system or legalizing marijuana — all ideas our readers suggested. An effective one? Not at all. Of course, world leaders' ideas haven't been terribly effective yet, either.
It's not too late to share your ideas at www.tampabay.com/news/business/article973953.ece. |
Perri Nelson responded with: Innumeracy
| Becky raises an interesting point. The original idea as suggested would cost $40 trillion or close to three times our gross domestic product. I think what gets people here is that many of them think in terms of the British billion or a million million. But in the good old “American” way of counting, a billion is only a thousand million. Of course when you look at it that way, Mustang's suggestion of $2 million for every man woman and child amounts to well over $600 trillion dollars. That's considerably larger than the gross product of the world. My point though about the valuelessness of money when it's simply given to everyone still stands. If we all had a couple of million dollars, nobody could afford a loaf of bread without first bringing a wheelbarrow to carry their cash in. |
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