Economic Bailout

[JD7.62]

My math ***** but how does 85billion divided by 200million equal 425,000? I think some one added a zero or two some where. 85billion over 200mil is $4250. Not a bad chucnk of change for 200,000,000 people though!

[Grumpy]

So, my math is terrible also but you know $85 Billion here or $850 Billion there and pretty soon we will be talking about real money.

Grumpy

[RoadToad]

I was a little gruff when I pointed this out in another thread. But I've exchanged a few private emails with Grumpy and have a world of respect for him, so I'll try to be more polite this time. First off, there's the math issue. Whoever orginated this says, "To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up. So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00."

Run that through a calculator and you'll see the problem. Just like JD pointed out (and Tim did on the other thread), $85,000,000,000 ÷ 200,000,000 people = $425 a person. But even if there were a way to give every American over 18 $425,000, that wouldn't make everybody in America suddenly affluent. Here some figures I got from http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2008/02/05/average-net-worth-values/

You might find a better site to get this info from. I just went with the first one I found, because the exact numbers don't matter; it's the general principle that does. Here is what they was the average net worth of an American family in 2004, broken down by the age of the head of household:

Under 35 years old = $14,200 ($73,500)
35-44 years old = $69,400 ($299,200)
45-54 years old = $144,700 ($542,700)
55-64 years old = $248,700 ($843,800)
65-74 years old = $190,100 ($690,900)
Over 75 years old = $163,100 ($528,100)

Remember, this if families, not individuals. So let's do some rough math (again, exact numbers don't matter here), and say that for individuals, cut those numbers in half. So, the effect of giving everyone in America $425,000 would be to at least quadruple the net worth of the majority of Americans, and multiply the net worth of poor household by many more times than that. So, that guy that pumps gas for $8/hr, do you think he's going to keep working for that? Heck no, it's going to cost $50,000/yr or more to hire him, or anybody else. So how are businesses going to afford help? They'll have to multiply their prices. The net result of handing out all that money would be virtually instant, enormous inflation that would devalue the dollar tremendously, and destroy our economy.

[Bobby Headrick]

I thought the bailout amt was 700 billion, where does 85 billion come from?

[Grumpy]

****, it was a joke folks, IT WAS A JOKE!!. No more levity from me on this site, you guys take everything too seriously,.

Grumpy

[RoadToad]

Sorry Grumpy. Like I mentioned in another thread, a drawback of forums like this is you can't hears someone's tone of voice. Perhaps if I had, I would've known you were joking. But this is getting spread all over the web, and a lot of people seem to really believe it. I guess I should've realized you've got more sense. No hard feelings, I hope.

[Grumpy]

No hard feelings at all, Roadtoad. I roared when I started reading it and thought everyone would appreicate a good laugh knowing that our wonderful Congress would never do anything like that. It makes too much snese. I never really looked at the math.

Grumpy

[DJD]

As we all deal with these corrupt companies and gubment. I would like to see the math on the retirement plans of Congress. Wonder if their plans are taking a hit?

[Grumpy]

DJD, since 1983 the retirement plan for Congress, the Senate, the President and all government employees is the same-- THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM, the main two parts of which are SOCIAL SECURITY and the THRIFT SAVINGS PLAN (a form of a 401K Plan with some matching funds). There is a hoax about the special Golden Retirement system for Congress, etc, but it is just that A HOAX and all of them DO CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIAL SECURITY. Granted, thier salaries are higher than most Government Employess but they don't have any special retirement plan. BTW, their private investments are, by law, all in Blind Trusts which they have no control over until after the leave government service.

Grumpy

[DJD]

Grumpy,
Thats exactly what I was driving at...been reading that email about their bennies for years!
Dang man if the truth starts coming out my image of the evil, self-serving darkside politicians might start to erode! Naw....unless another Reagan pops up I'll keep my opinion intact.