In my inbox this week, a proposed solution to the economic crisis:
There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force – Pay them $1 million apiece severance with the following stipulations:
1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.
2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.
3) They either buy a house/pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.
4) No Billions of Dollars in FREE Gov’t. Money or Loans – Gov’t. Bailout fixed.
I dunno. average life expectancy is another 25-30 years — I don’t think a million is considered enough to carry you through all that (at least, until universal healthcare kicks in). not to mention, the financial skills of the average American…
That’s 40e6*1e6 = 40e12 = 40 trillion dollars! So #4 is clearly BS (or, more likely, an inability to distinguish $1 from $1 million).
Teehee. Good point.
I immediately started focusing on the likely externalities of creating that many millionaires as to why it was impractical.