Just send a check...
I'm wondering about all that bailout money going to the banks, with even more going to automakers, and an eventual stimulus package meant to build infrastructure and generate more jobs. Now, the banks are getting about $800 billion - that's billion, with a b - meaning that if we divvy the cash up among the population, the average is about $2600. For a family of four, that's a little over $10,000.
So here's my alternative. Just send me a check for $10,000 and we'll call it even. Honest. Chateau CycleDog operates with a very low overhead, so there's little worry about the 'executives' here giving themselves a nice, fat, golden parachute. The money would go back into the economy in short order, and it would see that local grocery store employees keep their jobs. I'm sure the liquor store clerks would be grateful too, as well as the bike shop staff, the delivery drivers who bring the bikes into town, and the bicycle manufacturer's employees.
For a lot of us, $10,000 would go a long way toward purchasing a new car, thereby keeping the automakers and their employees afloat. No need to bail out Chrysler again if people start buying cars.
Or some of us could pay down our mortgages, freeing up cash for other discretionary spending. And that spending generates more jobs.
Now, I realize the utter insanity of simply letting taxpayers themselves decide where the money should go. What nonsense! If you want to subsidize, say, whale oil lamp manufacturing, you offer the business owners tax breaks or even cash to keep their businesses in operation. You allow them to outsource the work formerly done by the Amalgamated Wick Weavers Union, and allow the company to flout environmental restrictions against the accumulation of whale oil in the ground water around the lamp factory.
Of course, if you go the other way and allow the taxpayers to get the money directly, they can make a decision as to the desirability of whale oil versus those new-fangled electric lamps. What a concept.
So I just sit here waiting patiently for that check to arrive. I probably won't blow it on beer and pizza, but then again, the guy tossing dough in the air probably wants to keep his job too.
.
So here's my alternative. Just send me a check for $10,000 and we'll call it even. Honest. Chateau CycleDog operates with a very low overhead, so there's little worry about the 'executives' here giving themselves a nice, fat, golden parachute. The money would go back into the economy in short order, and it would see that local grocery store employees keep their jobs. I'm sure the liquor store clerks would be grateful too, as well as the bike shop staff, the delivery drivers who bring the bikes into town, and the bicycle manufacturer's employees.
For a lot of us, $10,000 would go a long way toward purchasing a new car, thereby keeping the automakers and their employees afloat. No need to bail out Chrysler again if people start buying cars.
Or some of us could pay down our mortgages, freeing up cash for other discretionary spending. And that spending generates more jobs.
Now, I realize the utter insanity of simply letting taxpayers themselves decide where the money should go. What nonsense! If you want to subsidize, say, whale oil lamp manufacturing, you offer the business owners tax breaks or even cash to keep their businesses in operation. You allow them to outsource the work formerly done by the Amalgamated Wick Weavers Union, and allow the company to flout environmental restrictions against the accumulation of whale oil in the ground water around the lamp factory.
Of course, if you go the other way and allow the taxpayers to get the money directly, they can make a decision as to the desirability of whale oil versus those new-fangled electric lamps. What a concept.
So I just sit here waiting patiently for that check to arrive. I probably won't blow it on beer and pizza, but then again, the guy tossing dough in the air probably wants to keep his job too.
.
posted by Ed W at 3:10 PM
2 Comments:
10 grand? I'd have to say I'd put it towards a new vehicle. My 9 year old minivan is starting to fall apart.
My Ford is getting rickety too, George, but if I could get the mortgage off my back, I could get another, nicer car too. On the other hand, the house could do with new windows and a new roof. Ka-ching! There goes 10 kilo bucks and more.
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