Stimulus

All the things I deal with, voluntarily and involuntarily, on a daily basis, seem to fall into three categories. The first and finest are the things that interest me intensely. Writing, reading about my various oddities and niche interests such as physics and mathematics, nutrition, religion, etc, fall into this category. Second are things that I’d like to know more about, but don’t have the time or energy to devote to them. And last are those things that I have no interest in but must attend to, day in and day out, to survive.

Economics falls into the second category.

I’d love to learn more about it but it’s just too daunting at this stage in my life. Still, it fascinates me, if only to have the knowledge to know when someone I’m listening to is B.S.-ing me or not. Economics is such an elastic subject that anyone can take a statistic and bend it this way or that or whatever way necessary to support his thesis. I would love that intuitive ability, gleaned from a thorough in-depth study, to know whether he’s overstepping his bounds, so to speak, with his statistics.

So, I listen here and there, read this and that, and pick up little by little. I enjoy listening to Larry Kudlow on Saturday mornings when I run errands with the Little One. He’s unabashedly conservative and unfailingly optimistic. Still, I’m no expert, I’m even far from being able to intelligently argue in the field. But I can understand an economic argument, and I’ve recently heard one that makes quite a lot of sense to me.

Pertaining to our country’s economic woes (which, remember, are always exaggerated by the mainstream media), here’s a simple solution that will never, ever be implemented. But from what I heard I think, in theory, it can work.

Suspend the federal income tax until the end of the year.

Just the federal income tax. Keep all the local, state, and sin taxes in place.

Whoa. I got curious as to how much this would amount compared to the $850 billion “stimulus” or “generational theft” bill that’s currently being debated.

How about some numbers? For the sake of argument, consider my family as middle class. Right in the middle. Two incomes are required, but that’s because we live in an expensive part of the country. If we don’t have to pay federal income tax we will have approximately $10,000 in our pockets by the end of the year. About half of our day care expense. Regardless, with that much extra in our pockets, at our current spending / saving ratio, that’s a fair chunk of change going into our local economy.

Some simple numeric extrapolation? Assume 300 million people in the United States, so, maybe, 100 million taxpaying units (couples, families, etc). Since we’ve located my family in the exact middle, let’s assume every unit will average $10,000 savings under this plan. Do the math, and you see that this plan, this suspension of federal income tax for the remaining 11 months of the year 2009 will yield a trillion dollars.

Whoa, again.

Essentially, they really don’t even have to expand this suspension to December 31, 2009. A six- or nine-month suspension should stimulate the economy quite nicely, thank you.

But it will never happen. Why? Simple. This plan would force our coronated overlords to tighten their belts and readjust their spending habits to suit the harsher economic climate. Washington needs the money to finance power and to push through the conflicting agenda of a couple hundred individuals grouped into two broad camps, a stupid one and an evil one. And 99.99999 or so percent of us are condemned to live under their stupid and evil rule.

Sigh. I’m just trying to stay employed and keep all the bills paid at the end of every month, not expecting a bailout but hoping and praying for some simple economic relief.