O/T The fix

[Paul T.]

The Fix

There recently was an article in the St. Petersburg , Fl. Times. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on: "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr. President,

Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the "Patriotic Retirement Plan":

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new AMERICAN Car. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

It can't get any easier than that!!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress pay their taxes..

Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto!

[J. Clarke]

Well it's nice to know that math education is alive and well and living in Saint Petersburg, FL.

[Swingman]

Still, they do stand a good chance of being right about what would happen if congress was required to eat its own dog food.

[GROVER]

IIRC 40 million people (40 x 10^6) times 0ne million dollars per recipient (1 x 10^6) equals 40 trillion (40 x 10^12). Thats a lot of dough. Joe G

[Larry Blanchard]

OK, he can't count. But what did the bailout cost? I've seen estimates anywhere from 5 trillion to 14 trillion. So far, not a lot of results for anyone other than Wall Street. Forty trillion spent as suggested might actually work :-).

Let's see. $250,000 for a decent house, $30,000 for a car, and $20,000 blown in a celebration leaves me with $700,000 assuming the million was tax free. That brings in $35,000 a year forever at 5% or $56,000 at %8 for as longer than I'm likely to live.

At $56,000 a year and no mortgage we could even give up our Social Security - another problem solved!

[Robatoy]

That's a lot of ink!

[J. Clarke]

Google "world GDP".

[Doug Miller]

If you're serious, then you're just as mathematically illiterate (or stupid) as he is.

The first stipulation is that you explain where that forty TRILLION dollars is coming from.

Fool.

[Jack Stein]

All you need do is add a bunch of zeros on a one, ten or 100 dollar bill. Not any more dough than we have now...