On February 17, 2009 President Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus package into law. Let’s see, a billion is a 1 followed by 9 zeros, right? So we have…
$787,000,000,000.00 …. that look right?
He also readied a new $50 billion foreclosure rescue plan aimed at Americans that are in danger of losing their homes. Which gives us…
$50,000,000,000.00 added onto the above – right?
So we’re spending…
$837,000,000,000.00
Now, according to Wikipedia, the U.S. Census Bureau has projected that the current U.S. population, as of 2:30 GMT November 17, 2008 is 305,682,072. Wikipedia also estimates people under 20 years of age to make up over a quarter of the U.S. population (27.6%).
That gives us an adult population of 221,313,820 in the U.S.
Now, I am going to cheat here and say that the buffer area between those age 10 and those age 20 is roughly equal to people that are in prison, and I am going to ignore rather or not the above includes illegal aliens. So – total U.S. adult population is presumed to be 221,313,820
This works out fairly well with the CIA World Fact Book 2007 estimates…
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Age structure
(2007 est.)
- 0?19 years: 27.4% (male 42,667,761; female 40,328,895)
- 20?64 years: 60.1% (male 89,881,041; female 90,813,578)
- 65 years and over: 12.6% (male 15,858,477; female 21,991,195)
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CIA places age 20 and over population at 218,544,291, we’ll take the higher number for our purposes.
So, we have it all sorted out now… Let’s do a little math…
$837,000,000,000.00 / 221,313,820 = $3,781.95
Right now, based on that math, every man and woman over the age of 18 in the United States (regardless of income or if they are in prison or anything) could get a check for $3,500.00 and there would still not be as much spent as the Stimulus Package is proposing be spent.
Now, I am not a mathematician or population expert or anything, but I can tell you from where I am sitting an added $3,500 looks like a fortune. And if we were to restrict this down to those who earned below median income, which was $46,000 in 2006, how about restricting to make sure that the only ones counted are legal United States citizens?
What would the number be then? Let’s be conservative here and say then we get the CIA number: 21,991,195 U.S. adult population.
$38,060.68
That is almost $40,000 per adult in the United States. Let’s back it down a little, let’s say only $35,000.00 each. What could you do with an additional $35,000.00 right now?
Now there is a stimulus package that encourages spending. My first thought is how far that would go toward helping to pay off my parent’s house. Me and my dad – that would be $70,000.00 – while it would not pay the house off entirely, it would certainly put it within range for me to be able to pay it off on my own. And it would stop the steady up-creep on the mortgage, which if I read the paperwork I just got right is currently going up by $258.67 per month.
I guess arguments can be made that paying corporations makes more sense. The CEO’s need expensive remodeling in their executive bathrooms and new jets and hefty bonuses – right? What would us common citizens do with money like that? Something stupid I’m sure… pay down their mortgage, buy food, pay for medication that they can not afford to get… Give the money to the right demographic as a dividend check and see what you get for your money. I think it would be a much better boost to the economy than letting some banker buy a new bidet for the executive restroom.
I’ll take my $35,000 now please… how about $3,500? Shoot, I’d be happy with an added $35 at the moment. That would at least get my dad’s medicine I’m scraping money together to get.
