Zen Solution to the Financial Crisis
It seems to me that this financial mess is like this - if I had $100 in a bank account and some robber came in and robbed the bank and took my $100 and everybody else’s money, too, and the bank called me up and said, “We want you to put another $100 in your account to replace the hundred that got stolen.” What’s wrong with that picture?! I’ve seen a lot of alternative scenarios since that sorry plan got floated but here’s the one that makes the most sense to me. . . . thank you, Ken.
Bail Out the American People!
I’m against the $700,000,000,000 bailout of the architects of America’s economic collapse.
Instead of rewarding the theives and greed mongers, why not take a fraction of that amount, $225 billion dollars, and just once, give each American citizen over 18 years of age $1,000,000?
To make the math simple, our population is about 300,000,000. About 25% of these are under eighteen leaving 225 million eligible recipients of this one time, “One Million Dollar Citizen’s Dividend”.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free. Assuming a 30% tax rate, every individual 18+ has to pay $300,000 in taxes.
That sends $67,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam and saves the government 573 billion dollars over the current bailout plan.
What this means is that every adult 18+ has $700,000 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $1.4 million.
What would you do with $700,000 to $1,400,000 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for your kid’s college – it’ll be there
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy new energy efficient cars – save the American automotive industry
Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
Start a new business - secure your children’s financial future
Finally give generously to the charity of your choice
If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…let’s change lives for the better and in doing so, make our country and our economy stronger. If we’re going to do a bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!
As for companies that caused this debacle? – liquidate them. Sieze their assets. Sell off their parts. Sell off the real estate. Make them pay. Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up. As for the Federal Reserve, FEDERALIZE it! Take it out of the hands of the same private bankers that engineered this mess!
The one time, “One Million Dollar Citizen’s Dividend” would do more to stimulate America’s economy and improve every American life than would continuing to line the pockets of the a@@holes who continue to rip us off. It’s this simple. We deserve it and the greed-driven money changers don’t. It is time we demand our fair share!
Forward this message to as many people as you can. E-mail a copy to your congressmen and State representatives in Washington
Ken Boschert
zenken7@yahoo.com
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:05 am
These are lovely thoughts, but I think you got carried away with the zeros! The way I do the math, each person gets one thousand dollars, not one million.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:45 am
Yikes - I didn’t double check it! This was the first comment I saw about “bailing out” ordinary folks when the media was falling all over themselves chanting “bail out wall street, bail out the banks, they’re too big to fail!”
Now everybody’s saying - hey, what about us? Well, a thousand dollars is good. That’ll pay a few bills.
This whole thing is beginning to sound really ridiculous, like it’s not really about money (whatever that ultimately means) but about how we go about in this world. There’s enough food in the world to feed everyone right now and yet children die of starvation. Now there’s a place to start . . . . swan . . .