An Excellent email I Received With Merit

[007]

Dear Mr. President:

Please find below my suggestion for fixing America's economy.

Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force.

Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the
Following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

It can't get any easier than that!

If more money is needed, have all members of Congress and their constituents pay their taxes...

If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.

If not, please disregard.

 

[Amanda]

Sounds brilliant to me.

 

[007]

Sounds brilliant to me.

You know... these simple ideas make you stop and think... "well, maybe it WOULD work." I mean, it'd probably be better for what ails the country right now than just BLOWING BILLIONS on huge companies that are going BANKRUPT ANYWAY!

And... I'm 53, so I think the idea is EXCEPTIONALLY brilliant...

 

[Xenophon]

Make it 5 mil, I want a BIG house!

 

[strollingbones]

how am now retiring ...to live off what....use up my saving then discover the ss system is broke.

i own a blazer and a subura...make an american car that will go 300 k i will buy it...plus most cars/trucks are made with parts here etc..so you are still putting americans out of work....is there a purely american car or truck still out there?

i own my own home free and clear....the writer of the email has no concept of the housing crisis...
simply paying off your house does nothing to end the housing crisis...

i do not need nor do i want hand outs from the government. that is the problem with baby boomers..they have voted themselves tons of entitlements and are quite willing to pass the debt on to their grandkids...

there are no simple solution to the mess we are in.

 

[KittenKoder]

If I got a million I would be set for a few lives. Investments for future funds, interest for needs, and at least half for really .... really awesome computer equipment.

 

[Sarah G]

40 million trillion dollars.. Sounds very expensive.

 

[Sarah G]

Sounds brilliant to me.

You know... these simple ideas make you stop and think... "well, maybe it WOULD work." I mean, it'd probably be better for what ails the country right now than just BLOWING BILLIONS on huge companies that are going BANKRUPT ANYWAY!

And... I'm 53, so I think the idea is EXCEPTIONALLY brilliant...

You know the Republican party used to be the party of accountants, now they just need basic math lessons.

It's a brilliant idea alright..

 

[strollingbones]

everyone speaks of good old fashioned values but few practice them...bankers should have already been selling homes...at 50 cents on the dollar if needed...instead of holding out for gov. bailouts at 75 cents on the dollar. foreclosures are being handled poorly...with the decease in the value of the home..and the home owners inablitlity to pay balloons or refin. foreclosures are taking place that are not needed...if the banks would have simply worked with the owners...why foreclose then sell the house at a price the foreclosed owners could have afforded? and you cant blame bush for this..clinton was probably the one who fired up...the american dream of owning a home..problem was...gone are the shotgun or mill type houses....now its go big or go home..

but back to the banks..the banks are robbing the american consumer blind and we are letting them, they have money to loan, they have maniupliated credit cards to where you either accept an usery rate or you risk damaging your credit score...now lets discuss the way that works...when you pay off a credit card you are very tempted to do what...cancel it....do not do that...your credit score is based on this crazy system with credit cards....say you have one credit card...max is 5k...you have charged 2 k....your buddy has 2 credit cards with a max of 10 k...and has 5 k on both of them..chances are ..his credit is higher than yours....the system is based on how much free credit you have on your cards...therefore when the credit card companies high your rates to 22 % if you cancell it reflects poorly on your credit thus making it harder to get a loan....now does that really make a damned bit of sense and it may vary state to state but i do not think so. they are all out to fuck the consumer and have been allowed to by both parties....

 

[editec]

everyone speaks of good old fashioned values but few practice them...

True. That's because conservative rhetoric is cheaper than actually being conservative

bankers should have already been selling homes...at 50 cents on the dollar if needed...instead of holding out for gov. bailouts at 75 cents on the dollar.

Yeah...except sell them to whom?

foreclosures are being handled poorly...with the decease in the value of the home..and the home owners inablitlity to pay balloons or refin. foreclosures are taking place that are not needed...

Home prices were wildly overvalued in the first place. Interest rates were overpriced, too.

if the banks would have simply worked with the owners...why foreclose then sell the house at a price the foreclosed owners could have afforded? and you cant blame bush for this..clinton was probably the one who fired up...the american dream of owning a home..problem was...gone are the shotgun or mill type houses....now its go big or go home..

The McMansions you mean? You bet!

but back to the banks..the banks are robbing the american consumer blind and we are letting them,

Congress is not only letting them rob us blind, they're enabling them to do so. Remember a few years back when they changed the bankruptsy laws?

Big mistake!

they have money to loan, they have maniupliated credit cards to where you either accept an usery rate or you risk damaging your credit score...

You know...until enough Americans don't give a tinkers' damn about their credit scores they're go9ng to keep winning.

now lets discuss the way that works...when you pay off a credit card you are very tempted to do what...cancel it....do not do that...your credit score is based on this crazy system with credit cards....say you have one credit card...max is 5k...you have charged 2 k....your buddy has 2 credit cards with a max of 10 k...and has 5 k on both of them..chances are ..his credit is higher than yours....the system is based on how much free credit you have on your cards...therefore when the credit card companies high your rates to 22 % if you cancell it reflects poorly on your credit thus making it harder to get a loan....now does that really make a damned bit of sense and it may vary state to state but i do not think so. they are all out to fuck the consumer and have been allowed to by both parties....

The credit card industry is an ongoing criminal enterprise which has bribed itself into the status of legal shylocks.

The average credit card rate being charged right now is 18%.

Banks are borrowing the money they lend out as credit at ZERO percent.

They lured people into borrowing with tickler rates and then regardless of their repayment history they change the rates on EXISTING balances!!!

That is a license to STEAL.

 

[del]

40 million trillion dollars.. Sounds very expensive.

actually, it's 4 trillion.

 

[Sarah G]

40 million trillion dollars.. Sounds very expensive.

actually, it's 4 trillion.

It works out to be 19 zeros. A trillion would be 12 I believe.

 

[del]

40 million trillion dollars.. Sounds very expensive.

actually, it's 4 trillion.

It works out to be 19 zeros. A trillion would be 12 I believe.

actually it's 40 trillion, my mistake. 13 zeroes.

like it matters, right?

 

[Sarah G]

actually, it's 4 trillion.

It works out to be 19 zeros. A trillion would be 12 I believe.

actually it's 40 trillion, my mistake. 13 zeroes.

like it matters, right?

You're right. 13 zeros.

 

[editec]

40 trillion dollars doesn't even begin to repay the debt the banking industry owes the American consumers.

 

[007]

how am now retiring ...to live off what....use up my saving then discover the ss system is broke.

i own a blazer and a subura...make an american car that will go 300 k i will buy it...plus most cars/trucks are made with parts here etc..so you are still putting americans out of work....is there a purely american car or truck still out there?

I drive a 1997 GMC 4X4, and have a 2006 Harley Davidson. I'd venture to say both of those are more American than your subaru or a toyota. No one knows what the car companies have done with the billions of dollars they've already gotten, and they're going bankrupt anyway. If all of a sudden they all sold millions of cars, that very well may keep them from going bankrupt now, but I wouldn't go as far to say that it would keep them from going bankrupt sometime in the future. The American auto makers do need restructuring. They need to make better cars that cost less to buy. If they get rid of the unions they'll do that.

i own my own home free and clear....the writer of the email has no concept of the housing crisis...
simply paying off your house does nothing to end the housing crisis...

Buy another home. Buy a foreclosure, rent it out. I don't own my house. The idea is just to buy or pay off a house. If you own yours free and clear, buy another one. But the majority of people, such as myself, have a mortgage to pay off, and if every one of us all of sudden paid off our mortgage, and those who don't even have a home bought one, it would have an impact.

i do not need nor do i want hand outs from the government. that is the problem with baby boomers..they have voted themselves tons of entitlements and are quite willing to pass the debt on to their grandkids...

there are no simple solution to the mess we are in.

I would agree that the hardy, I'll work for what I have, individuals of yesteryear are gone, but I don't see this little idea in the OP being ANY worse than how BAD oblahma is fucking things up. The main point of the idea is, if our government is going to throw money around that we don't have, instead of throwing ALL of it at massive, rich, companies so they can continue their lavish payrolls and handing out bonuses and STILL go bankrupt and the money is just GONE, then why not send some of that cash down to OUR level... the little guy? Where's ours? If we don't get any, nobody should get anyway. Bail out everybody, or nobody at all.

 

[Iriemon]

everyone speaks of good old fashioned values but few practice them...bankers should have already been selling homes...at 50 cents on the dollar if needed...instead of holding out for gov. bailouts at 75 cents on the dollar. foreclosures are being handled poorly...with the decease in the value of the home..and the home owners inablitlity to pay balloons or refin. foreclosures are taking place that are not needed...if the banks would have simply worked with the owners...why foreclose then sell the house at a price the foreclosed owners could have afforded? and you cant blame bush for this..clinton was probably the one who fired up...the american dream of owning a home..problem was...gone are the shotgun or mill type houses....now its go big or go home..

but back to the banks..the banks are robbing the american consumer blind and we are letting them, they have money to loan, they have maniupliated credit cards to where you either accept an usery rate or you risk damaging your credit score...now lets discuss the way that works...when you pay off a credit card you are very tempted to do what...cancel it....do not do that...your credit score is based on this crazy system with credit cards....say you have one credit card...max is 5k...you have charged 2 k....your buddy has 2 credit cards with a max of 10 k...and has 5 k on both of them..chances are ..his credit is higher than yours....the system is based on how much free credit you have on your cards...therefore when the credit card companies high your rates to 22 % if you cancell it reflects poorly on your credit thus making it harder to get a loan....now does that really make a damned bit of sense and it may vary state to state but i do not think so. they are all out to fuck the consumer and have been allowed to by both parties....

There was an interesting thesis I heard the other day that elimination (part of deregulation) of usury laws (which used to set top interest rates at 8 or 9 or 12%) has allowed the financial industry to operate far more profitably which has siphoned assets away from more productive elements (eg manufacturing) of society. I'm not sure its correct, but it is an interesting proposition.

 

[Iriemon]

actually, it's 4 trillion.

It works out to be 19 zeros. A trillion would be 12 I believe.

actually it's 40 trillion, my mistake. 13 zeroes.

like it matters, right?

Yeah, not much.

It's a brilliant plan to solve the nation's problems.

All we have to do is find $40 trillion dollars laying around.

And if you're under 50, we'll you're screwed anyway so don't worry about not getting your million bucks.

But if you think this plan would work, pass it on.

 

[007]

It works out to be 19 zeros. A trillion would be 12 I believe.

actually it's 40 trillion, my mistake. 13 zeroes.

like it matters, right?

Yeah, not much.

It's a brilliant plan to solve the nation's problems.

All we have to do is find $40 trillion dollars laying around.

And if you're under 50, we'll you're screwed anyway so don't worry about not getting your million bucks.

But if you think this plan would work, pass it on.

Nice addendum.