Someone out there started an email that is spreading like wildfire. It begins like this:
I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I ’ m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.
D'oh! Nobody told the author of this plan that there would be math expectations among his readers. He made the math simple, but not simple enough for him. You see, $85 billion divided among 200 million people actually works out to $425, not $425,000. That's a pretty big difference, even if you round up. I'm too busy right now to try to figure out where this thing started, but I have a pretty good idea which one of my aunts is busy forwarding that email to everyone she knows.
The email I got that did make some sense to me is this one:
Dear Friend,
Congress is on the brink of making a one-sided deal to give George W. Bush a blank check to bail out his pals - offering nearly (or perhaps more than) a trillion taxpayer dollars to Wall Street to cover its bad debts. That works out to somewhere between $2000 and $5000 from every American family. So what do the taxpayers get in return?
Nothing. No new regulation or oversight to help avoid this kind of crisis in the future. No public interest givebacks to help people whose homes are in the hands of the banks. Perhaps most shockingly of all, the taxpayers get absolutely no share in the profits if and when these finance giants bounce back, even though we are now assuming a great deal of the risk.
This is worse than a bad deal - this isn't a deal at all. This is a blank check to some of the richest companies in the world.
I just signed a petition calling on key members of Congress to impose a few sensible conditions to this bailout in order to protect the American people -- I hope you will too.
Please have a look and take action.
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/no_blank_check/?r_by=-1076525-vy0QYTx&rc=paste
Thanks!
I'd almost consider not deleting that one.
Someone named "T. J. Birkenmeier" is the alleged author. One real T. J. Birkenmeier has a linkedin account at
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/398/333http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/398/333
Posted by: Paulie's Thumb | September 24, 2008 at 17:09