The Taxpayer’s Bailout Plan

The Taxpayer’s Bailout Plan

My father taught me at a young age that people do not appreciate what they do not have to pay for.  I have had forty years of consistent confirmation of the truth of this principle.  Give someone free housing and it will be destroyed inside of two years.  Give a sixteen year old a new Corvette, requiring no personal investment of their own, and they’ll be driving it like a rental by the end of the first day.  Give a man a fish… you get the point.

Coupled with that principle, my high school government/economics teacher, Mr. Fortenberry, taught me that the Federal Government gets all of its resources from a singular income stream:  taxation.  And, unlike other income streams in a capitalistic system, taxes are not “earned” by market forces but are coerced by law which requires no measure of accountability to market performance.  Those who make the laws require the money to be given to their collective whims.  Those who pay can only respond by replacing their elected officials with others who will be equally unaccountable for the money they get to spend without the discipline of having earned it. 

At the end of the day we find ourselves in the same situation time and again:  the government has the same appreciation for our tax dollars that a child who does no chores has for an allowance.  Our money is meaningless to them.  It is spent as liberally as it is attained, with the presumption that the supply is limitless.

The current approach to “fixing” our nation’s recession is a great example of the flaw of this system.  The money of “other people” is now being prepared to be dumped upon those who have not earned the rights to it from the market.  Banks, automobile companies and others who have performed poorly will be getting free money from those of us who have performed well enough to pump taxes into the system.  Already congress is asking curious questions concerning the use of the last bailout given to the banks.  Already they are dumbfounded at how this welfare stimulus has been spent by its recipients.

There is only one scenario where money can be counted on to be spent wisely, and that is when the money is spent by those who have earned it and appreciate the discipline required to attain it.

To that end, here is my bailout proposal, which I will call the “Taxpayer’s Bailout Proposal.”

If congress and the president are determined to spend 900 BILLION dollars to jump-start the economy, then that 900 Billion should go to the people who earned it: the tax payers.  You may say, “this is only a tax cut.”  No, this is an immediate injection program. 

There are some 300 million people in America, and roughly 60% of them are actual taxpayers.  (The rest are the teenagers mentioned earlier with new Corvettes they cannot appreciate.)  Using simple math, logic and capitalistic principles then, let’s return that 900 Billion to the 180 million actual tax payers. 

900 Billion divided by 180 million tax payers comes out to $5,000 per tax-payer.  A tax-paying family of four would receive $20,000.  Since our goal is to stimulate the economy, then a foundational rule must be put into place to ensure the economy receives the intended boost.  That rule is that the money received must be spent within thirty days.

In this scenario, people who have demonstrated discipline in being the wage-earners of the country will be rewarded with the privilege of reinvesting this tax-generated cash infusion.  And, the recipients of the infusion will have the opportunity to earn their money from the market, by selling goods or services which are deemed necessary by the market.

If this plan were implemented, the supposed key beneficiaries of the bailout would be immediately given the breathing room they need.  Many families of four, having received $20,000 in cash, will choose to buy a new car.  Assembly lines will turn.  GM will rejoice.  Ford will endure.  Some will choose to pay off debts, thus injecting funds into the struggling banking system.  Who knows, at the end of the day, perhaps even Larry Flynt will sell some magazines and can stop his preposterous whining about a potential “failed” porn market.  We should be so lucky.