Bail US out?

Hi neighbors. We've all heard about the financial crisis and how the government, true to form, promises to "get more involved" and "fix it." The government has two basic tactics for dealing with internal problems. The first is ignore them and hope they go away (or stay under the radar until the next guy gets elected.) The second is to throw money at them and hope they hunker down awhile and don't show up again until -- you guessed it -- after the next guy gets elected.

Recently a cousin sent me an e-mail -- one of those from no-one-knows-who -- that seemed silly at first. I had a good laugh and then thought, "why wouldn't this work?" The more I read it the more sense it made. I've always been a big fan of fantasy fiction -- you know stories where the knights in shinning armor killing the horrible dragon.

This e-mail proposed that instead of bailing out the big companies that were begging for money, the government should split that $85 billion among American citizens aged 18 and over, including, of course, those in the military.

The person that had made up this e-mail said when he did the math this would give every American citizen age 18 plus (200,000,000 of us) about $250,000 each (after taxes of course) to spend.

Wow! This got me excited at first look. It sounded too good to be true, so a second look was in order.

Still, I couldn't help but think, what would I do with a quarter of a million dollars? I figured most every one I know would say they would pay off their debts. Me, too.

If almost every one did the same, the big housing companies like Freddie and Fannie would have no more money problems. All the mortgages would be paid off.

Banks would all be sound because everyone would get rid of their credit card debt.

Even the government would come out ahead because students could pay off those pesky federal student loans.

The economy would thrive because -- well -- we would ALL just go spend some of it wouldn't we? Here's the rest of how the email broke down the benefits of this "We Deserve it Dividend." Put away money for college. Save some of it in a bank to create money to loan to entrepreneurs. Buy a new car to create jobs. Invest in the market because capital drives growth. Pay for your parent's medical insurance so health care improves.

I'll have to admit, re-distribution of wealth this way seemed much more of an economic incentive than bailing out a few mega-corporations.

A new Golden Age would be upon us in less time than it would take the ink to dry on the incentive checks.

Unfortunately, when I dug out my calculator I found that this email was done with a base amount of 85 TRILLION, not 85 billion, so using the 85 billion, we would all only get around $1,500 after taxes.

Another easy solution busted! I guess I'll wait for Obama to mail me my $1,000; which by the way, will consume most of the above mentioned 85 billion.

I can wait for my quarter of a million, (or my one grand) or I can work every day for another 20 years and see which practice actually puts money in the bank, or at least food on the table.

As usual, I think depending on my government to "bail me out" is a slim to non-existent proposal with any amount under consideration.

After all, most Americans have been taking care of themselves for years and only giving TO the government via taxes, fees and eminent domain.

Still, getting a quarter of a million dollars is a nice dream; but if the person was serious, I hope the math for the e-mail wasn't done by a government accountant.

It would be a good thing for the government to reward those Americans who have paid money into the federal coffers for decades. I'd suggest investing in education. Just making sure everyone in America knew a little basic math might be reward enough.

Until the next time friends remember, hard times often evoke big dreams. If we want to survive the next few years, we all need to stay rooted in reality, not looking for an easy way out. And we certainly don't want to believe the myth that the government will "take care of us."