THIS IS THE BEST IDEA SO FAR.


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's about 40 million people over 50 in the work force; pay them $1 million apiece 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

I am over 50 ... Where is MY million dollars?

HELL yes, I will buy a new car !!

HELL yes, I will buy another house !! (Then rent out this townhouse!)

      $1,000,000.00
 minus $35,000.00 (for new car)
minus $350,000.00 (for house)
Leaves $615,000.00 for my pocket!

Sounds like a deal to me!

Where do I sign?

Chuck

I'm with Chuck.....sign me up.  ;)

B

I'll get on the waiting list - I'm not as old as you geezers.

Brew wrote on Apr 1^st, 2009 at 11:15pm:

I'll get on the waiting list - I'm not as old as you geezers.

I have a feeling you'll catch up to me before we see a stimulus package that awards Chuck or myself anything.  ;)

Sounds great, but that's a big assumption that the Fed won't take half of it back in taxes (like gambling or lottery winnings).

Million Dollars less half leaves you with five hundred thousand. . . . minus mortgage, minus car, (and in my case minus college tuition) and I have to go back to work to pay my taxes.

Can we make it start at age 49? Then Joe's eligible! :)

Mosaicwench wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 8:28am:

Million Dollars less half leaves you with five hundred thousand. . . .

OK, then using my above figures, that would leave me with $115,000.00 in my pocket, PLUS a new car and a new house ... (all paid for, BTW)

Still works for me!

Chuck

Maybe I'm wrong, but:

40,000,000 workers 50 or over

X

$1,000,000 each
------------------------
$40 Trillion

or about 3 times what this administration and Congress have either spent or committed us to in the 2.5 months they've had the reigns.

Now I'm not sure it sounds like such a great idea.

Brew wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 10:23am:

Now I'm not sure it sounds like such a great idea.

BUT, using the "me me ME" and "I want it NOW" and "Screw the future" outlook that is so prevalent in this society, at least I would get my new car, house, AND $115,000.00 !!!

Brew wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 10:23am:

$40 Trillion

And besides THAT, we have already decided that it would only be half that, $20 trillion dollars, because they are taking $500,000.00 back, in taxes!

Chuck

ClusterChuck wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 10:31am:

Brew wrote on Apr 2nd, 2009 at 10:23am: $40 Trillion And besides THAT, we have already decided that it would only be half that, $20 trillion dollars, because they are taking $500,000.00 back, in taxes! Chuck

Why does it scare me so when Chuck starts making sense??? ::)

Half of the money that doesn't exist in the first place back to the government....hmmmm.

Yeah, let's just foist it onto the backs of our kids, their kids, their kids' kids, ad nauseum. The generations that come after us are going to be so saddled with tax liability it would make our heads spin - if we were around to see it. And to think our forefathers, when presented with a fraction of a percent tax increase on tea, went ballistic.

The old Chinese curse is right: "May you live in interesting times."

ClusterChuck wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 10:29am:

BUT, using the "me me ME" and "I want it NOW" and "Screw the future" outlook that is so prevalent in this society, at least I would get my new car, house, AND $115,000.00 !!!

And don't forget, a loaf of bread will cost $10K, so that $115K won't last long . . . .  ::)

Quote:

Million Dollars less half leaves you with five hundred thousand. . . .

I'm not fussy. Just put my name in. I'll even by a car to look at.

Charlie

Brew wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 10:23am:

Maybe I'm wrong, but: 40,000,000 workers 50 or over X $1,000,000 each ------------------------ $40 Trillion or about 3 times what this administration and Congress have either spent or committed us to in the 2.5 months they've had the reigns. Now I'm not sure it sounds like such a great idea.

Not to worry Brew, the government can always print more money! :D...Problem solved!  LMAO ;D

-P.

Ya know, I am more than familiar with the railing against the flat tax concept, HOWEVER - a case study in such an endeavour (albeit accidental) was the Canadian Govt's GST (goods and services or more commonly known as the grab and steal tax).  

7% flat - nationwide across the board on all goods and services.  You have to give pause to a thing such as this when it became apparent that the Cdn Govt could no longer HIDE all it's surplus money and therefore had to begin reducing the GST - 6% and if I'm not mistaken down to 5% this year.  When a government can't find enough ways to hide money, I'd say they've stumbled onto something....

5% of a paltry income of 25,000 a year is $1250 a year income tax. Divided by 12 is $104 a month or on weekly pay - $25 a week.

5% of Warren Buffet's $46 mil 2006 taxable income) is $230,000,000. Considerably less than he 17.7% he complained about being taxed at. And of course most of which was buried in the myriad of write offs and loopholes.

Somehow seems a fairly easy and logistically easy manner of sorting out the personal income tax nefarious underground that you and I give votes away to so we can get a tax credit.

Ah well, so much for wishful simplistic thinking.  What's sad is that the Canucks proved it works.  But no one will give it any serious chance.

I'm aware this is but one piece of the puzzle/problem but it's an example of how things could in fact be brought back to reign on many runaway trains right now.

Cat

Cat,

That is the beauty of the "Fair Tax".  It cuts out all of the built in taxes on purchases and just makes a flat 23% sales tax, with  no income, property, estate, social security, medicare, etc. taxes.  No Corporate taxes to drive up the cost of the goods purchased.  I've seen some pretty interesting studies put out by those who tried to debunk the idea that ended up backing it.  To keep it from being burdensome to the lower income brackets the government sends a "prebate" check to each home to cover what the taxation would be on normal cost of living.  I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, so I'm not sure exactly what that would be, but it would be approximately equal to the tax exemptions right now.  The added benefit is that it would cut out the underground labor force, plus since it is tax on purchases, would cost the illegals because they would not qualify for the "prebate" each month.

Jerry