[Peace-discuss] FW: Where do I sign up?

[Robert Naiman]

It's a great idea in principle, but the numbers are too high. 40
million times 1 million is 40 trillion, and that's not cheaper than
the bailout; it's about three times the size of the U.S. economy.

Here's a revision in the spirit of the suggestion.

Say the US labor force is 100 million. (It's somewhat higher.) Say
that we're trying to deal with 10% unemployment (we're not there yet,
but we're headed in that direction, and if you count unmeasured
unemployment, we may already be there.) Let's say "full employment" is
4% unemployment (of course it's not true, but people do say that, and
by U.S. standards, 4% is a very low unemployment rate.) So we need to
create 6 million jobs to get to 4% unemployment.

So, in the spirit of the suggestion, let's give a "severance deal" to
6 million people, and let the severance deal be a lump sum payment of
$100,000, with the stipulation that if they're underwater on their
mortgage, they have to use it to pay the mortgage, and otherwise, they
have to buy a new ecofriendly American car.

That would cost $600 billion. And that *would* be cheaper than the bailout.

On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 8:13 PM, LAURIE SOLOMON <LAURIE1942 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Although it obviously is an attempt at humor, it is an interesting
> speculative proposition in its own right.
>
>
>                                                   Where do I sign up?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   Patriotic  Retirement - This Would Work:
>
>    This  was an article from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on  Sunday.
> The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix  the
> Economy?"
>  I  thought this was the BEST idea.
>  I  think this guy nailed it!
>  Dear  Mr.President,
>  Patriotic  retirement:
>  There  are about 40 million people over 50 in the work  force;
>  pay  them $1 million a piece severance with  stipulations:
>  1)  They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment
>  fixed.
>  2)  They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry
>  fixed.
>  3)  They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage- Housing Crisis
>  fixed.
>  All  this and it's still cheaper than the "bailout".
>
>
>                     I love  it!
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
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>
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-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

"It's 11 AM in Washington. Do you know where your foreign policy is?"