The price to pay...

I remember watching this guy as a kid.  Greedy, arrogant, and well a pretty nasty guy who said every man had a price.  People could be bought.  I remember in the late 90's as he shot a promo, where he backed up on his heel ways, and he said that every man has a price to pay.  On both counts, he is right.  Almost every man has a price, everyone has a number, they might not be honest, but they do.  Sometimes their price is more than what someone is willing to pay, but it is there, the amount or the price you pay to get them to back up on their stances.  But more importantly, with that number comes another price, selling yourself out.

But this is not a philosophical discussion about the price a man has, this is the price of another topic.  The price it would cost us to end poverty in the United States.  So, would what do you think the price to end poverty would be in the United States?  What about ending poverty in the entire world?  How much would it cost?  Do you think it would cost hundreds of trillions of dollars?  Do you think it would completely bankrupt the whole of the world?  All the governments, the entirety of the wealth for all people who are alive?

It is not nearly that costly to end poverty, it would be costly.  For around 320 billion we could put a massive hurt on it, that is less than half of our current military budget.  For around 32 trillion, we could probably end poverty buy making everyone a millionaire.  We could go cheaper if you removed people who make over a million dollars a year, "illegal" immigrants, political leaders, businesses, and "men of the cloth".  Cheaper yet if you broke it down to an odd/even type deal.  People born on odd number years were given x amount of dollars, the following year people born on an even number year were given x amount of dollars.  Maybe an odd/even breakdown of the last four digits of their social security number.  This being paid for all people currently born and living in the United States.  So, it would exclude all those children who are sitting in queue to be born, and it would stop people from running out and having new children.  It would not be an incentive to have three new kids.  Maybe throw a payout by age in there.  18 and older gets x amount of dollars, for every year younger, you get less, until you reach a point where children who are newly born get ten thousand dollars.  Making it even cheaper, we could say that if you owe taxes at any level, those funds you owe go directly back to the government. 

Is it a perfect idea, not at all.  Sure you would still have homeless people, those who would squander the money away on stupid things, multiple homes and the like.  But, what would it do?  Well supply would drastically dwindle, demand would skyrocket, and I would have concerns about inflation, but jobs would be needed somewhere.  I am not an economist, I am not entirely sure what that would do to the economy.  But what I do know is that many people would get off the streets and into a home.  People would spend that money paying bills, ensuring they have decent transportation, remodeling homes, buying things in a sluggish economy.  So long as inflation didn't eat up the money, and the 1%ers and scammers didn't try to screw everyone over, it might just work.

 There are countless ways to go about this little plan.  It may not be give everyone a million dollars a year, it might mean giving everyone a hundred thousand dollars a year.  I know some people are saying it is a disincentive to work and do.  But that is a structural issue.  See, not every handout is a disincentive.  If it is structured correctly, it is a reward.  I know people who work their backsides off, do everything the right deems as being right, and they are still stuck.  They owe money on their homes, or cars.  They have acquired debt that they could cover given nothing goes wrong.  For those people this payout would be a reward of sorts.  Even though they can pay off their debt on their own, they could pay it off faster.  They might also have lower levels of debt, which would give them more spending power. 

Even in my current state, my debt is under a hundred thousand spread between credit cards, college loans, and a truck payment (because I ended up taking a loan to replace the truck I destroyed at a previous job).  That figure also covers my mother, and fathers debt.  So between three people, our debt would be covered in one family members payment.  But it would be more than enough to get everyone squared away, get a second used vehicle for me to use at any job I turn up, and into something better than where I am.  Meanwhile, Santana who was more responsible, he can remodel his mom's home, and Lisa can buy the home she is residing in.  The more responsible you were before this handout, the more reward you get, meanwhile the less responsible the person, the more they can dig out of their mess.  The more hard up you are, the better chance you get of breaking even and getting on solid footing.

As I said before you will have people who will misuse the money.  There are idiots in every segment of the population.  They will buy things they don't need, and not take care of business.  But thats the thing, even their misuse will benefit everyone.  People like the Walton family will make money off the deal.  Their profit in turn is paid back into the economy via the demand for employees, and they don't have to raise wages, all they have to do is sit back and wait on people to spend.  Taxes would be paid current for all people getting this hand out.  Debt would slowly be removed from the picture, and the banks would save money on foreclosures and sitting on houses.  Win win situation if done right.  What is standing in the way...?

The GOP, the Good Ole Person, and the libertarians.