Formal Fallacy

I Want My 5 Grand

I’ve been slacking on Formal Fallacy.  I have excuses, but I’ll keep them to myself.  What I will share is a strange thought that popped into my head earlier today.  I was reading the horror story that is the economic crisis and how AIG is going to receive another large chunk of change after AIG’s CEOs took the previous chunk of change to go on vacation.

I couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t a better way to spend 700 Billion dollars.  So I did some long division.  First, some numbers.

$700,000,000,000.  That’s how many taxpayer dollars are going to be funneled into Wall Street.

305,386,000.  The population of the United States.

138,000,000.  Taxpayers in the United States.

700,000,000,000 divided by 138,000,000 = 5072.46

$5072.46 per taxpayer.

Here’s my idea.  Instead of giving corrupt corporations like AIG a ridiculous amount of money so the CEO’s can go on vacation, why not give each taxpayer $5,072.46 dollars that they can either invest on their own in companies of their choosing, or they could take that 5 grand and buy a new TV, or use that 5 grand to pay rent on homes that are on the verge of foreclosing.

Now, I’m not an Economics major.  And I had to use my PC’s calculator to do the math.  But if you want to boost the economy, and if you are as concerned about “Main Street not Wall Street” as you say you are… then what’s wrong with this idea?

Chris