What if the US Government Gave US The $700 Billion Bailout?

$700 Billion.

That's how much money the White House wants to give failing insurance companies and investment banks to save their businesses. $700 Billion dollars. That's the single largest government bailout in US History, and the question being raised is who's going to pay and if it will help us in the long run.

To that end, since we already know we, the US Public, are going to have to pay for this... why not just give us the money?

Yes, yes, I know; we got a check not too long ago. And, you know, $300 - $500 isn't bad. It's enough to... well, fill your gas tank, pay a bill. Maybe. Not enough for even ONE mortgage payment, that's for sure. And we all know that a large part of why this economy is so bad is because, you guessed it, a lot of loan defaults.

So how about the US Public get's $700 Billion dollars. How? How would that happen?

Well, first off, let's do the simplest part; divide it EQUALLY over the entire population. So, at about 305,000,000 people, that means we all get... $2300. Who's included in that? EVERYONE. Men, women, kids, grandparents, government workers, prisoners, homeless people, the rich... EVERYONE who lives in the US.

So the next thing we do is eliminate anyone under 18. That's roughly 80,000,000 people. SWEET! That makes it 225,000,000 people! People in prison are next! That's 2.2 million people, so BAM! They're gone, they're in jail. We're now down to 222,800,000 million.

Now, let's just say that the government deserves a bonus this year. OK, now that your done laughing, let's instead of giving the folk in the higher echelons of government the money, we give it to the people who are barely making enough cash to feed their kids, let alone themselves. Seriously, people who work in Social Security aren't exactly happy folks.

Getting the number of people who work in the higher-echelons isn't easy, NOT EVEN CLOSE! There's 100 Senators, 440 people in the House of Representatives, 50 Governors! Hell, the federal government is compromised of 4 MILLION people! That means going in and trying to find who's the working slobs are and who's in the FBI and CIA. Then you have all those LOCAL governments! UH!

OK, so, for the sake of argument, we're going to say 4 Million people in this country are making lots of money a year by being a "public servant" by being President, Mayor, Governor, City council, State Rep, etc...

We're now down to 218,000,000 people.

So, let's not forget the rich! OH YES! The filthy rich folks! The TOP 1% of America who own 32% of America! So that top 1% is 3.2 million people since we're going from that top number of 305,000,000. Now, we can go on and on about where the cut-off should be for what's "rich". That's where it gets hairy. We'll just cut it off at the Top 1%. Why? Because 68% of the US population makes less than $50,000... You know what? Screw it. We're going to make sure that the top 15.73 percent, those making a wonderful $100,000+ don't get this money.

So that's 47,976,500 from the TOP number of 305,000,000. That's 170,023,500 people!

That's a pretty good number! Hell, we've nearly shaved off 135,000,000 people who can't use the cash! We're now dealing with US, the people who NEED this money the most! US, the people who can't pay their bills, afford decent health care, and the people who owe these banks the most cash.

And we just got a check for $700 Billion dollars.

That means we get... $4117.07 each. OK, round that down to $4100. That extra $17.07 per-person can go to back to the government. How much is that? $2,902,301,145! HOLY CRAP! I just found a way to save the government nearly $3 BILLION dollars!

$4100. WOW! Crap, if I had that kinda cash, I'd pay off as many bills as possible! No, it isn't a butt load of cash, but it's nothing to sneeze at. Some people don't even make that much in two months! $4100... for me, that's a few mortgage payments, all my utility bills, and any other debts I may have. Not enough to cover all of it, mind you, but a nice bit.

Now, can we honestly say that giving these massive houses this money could be better? If we're the ones who owe the money to them, if WE'RE the one's that are causing them to lose money... shouldn't we be the ones to pay it back? The government isn't going to wipe OUR debt away, is it? No, we're still stuck with those bills! But for the over 170,000,000 Americans who NEED it, the people who may not have even needed to pay taxes in their lives because they NEVER made enough cash... THEY get the money, too. We ALL do!

Me? I think this is a better idea than anything else we've got right now. We're the ones suffering the most and we're the ones with the debt. I don't see our parents more than happy to cut us a check to pay off all our bills; they need help themselves.

So start writing everyone you can about this, spread this idea like wildfire, and start getting the ears of your local government! I did all the crap work, you just need to send it out there!


REFERENCES (Because for something like this, you need them!):
Population total is an estimate based on the US Census Data.
Number of people under age 18 based on rounding down the numbers. Combined with an estimate of total population, my ballpark is pretty good. Data is here at the US Census.
The number of people who work for the US Government came from Wikipedia, but considering that the overall number is next to impossible for me to get, 4 Million is either a gross over-estimate or under-estimate. We're going to go with it since, when you account for the local governments, it does look like a lot.
The number of people in prison is based on a 2006 number. It most likely is higher.
The number of people making more than $100k a year is from Wikipedia, but those numbers are based on a TON of research.
That awesome cartoon is by Stuart Carlson. That guy rocks!