An Email Sent to Me Today ... Supposed to be a Simple Fix for America's Economic Problems

Shazzam! All fixed! Bush was so stupid, he never thought of this. It only takes:

$40 mil To Fix The Economy
"This is from an article in the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper.

The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?"

Seems like 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, travel 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! If more money is needed, have all members of Congress and their constituents pay their taxes...
• If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.
• If not, please disregard. "

Is this a test? It sounds ok on the surface, with it's digs at the Wall Street thieves, but NO, I don't think this plan would work. I think I will disregard it!

First, if there are 40 Million people over fifty years old in the workforce, who like myself, are doing jobs that require some level of skill and knowledge of the field, I promise you that you are going to be hard pressed to find 400,000 people to fill their shoes, much less 40,000,000. Have you ever noticed that there are always job vacancies available, but often they are in specialized fields that not everyone can fill?

Second, If you have $40 million, that would only provide a $1 million check for 40 people. Or a $1.00 check for all 40 million people. I can't retire on a dollar.
1,000,000 x 40,000,000 = 40,000,000,000,000. That's 40 Trillion. The plan below would cost $40 Trillion. That's more than we can produce as a nation in ten years.

Hey..... Wait a minute! I think the Obama administration might go for this! Contrary facts and feasibility (or the lack thereof) do not seem to bother them too much. Be careful! Before you know it, there will be a big fight in the media among the Democrats and a few of the Republicans, over who came up with this plan first!

It's like what happened earlier this year. On April 15, this year ('09). A reporter-ette from MSNBC mocked the the Tea Party protesters for claiming that stimulus spending would cause tax increases. She kept quoting the president that no one who makes less than $250,000 a year would pay more taxes. She yelled at one who had a sign that said, "Don't Tax Away Our Freedoms" and she said, "What does raising taxes have to do with freedom, anyway?" She wasn't even smart enough to be embarrassed. (I was embarrassed for her.) "Hey Lady!" I was yelling at the tv set, "Did you ever hear of the American Revolutionary War ? ... Duh! " They thought taxes had something to do with freedom. Some of us still do.
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Phil Strickland