Imagine if every American got 75000

Just imagine, if every warm body in the US got 75000. Every single baby, every old person, college student, homeless person, rich person, every single person.

How would that change our country? Would that be amazing or devastating?
For those saying it would cost too much blah blah blah. You know what else costs a lot, all the weapons, all the other crap that we pay for that is worthless.
Imagine if the government gave everyone 75000 as a one time deal/Jublilee/ recovery from Covid economics..

Would it be life changing? Imagine a family with several kids.. wow
Would the price of everything skyrocket? Would housing go crazy?
I know there have been studies in the past where lottery winners are back to where they are post winnings because they were
irresponsible with the money. I think it would be different if everyone got it at the same time.

I keep reading about 600 here, 1400 there. That amount of money is not life changing and probably isn't even enough to help anyone.
75000 would be enough to pay off college loans, as a down payment for a house. I think that amount would be life changing for a lot of people.

Why? I mean if we are printing money nonstop, might as well go big right?
What made me think of this is all that craziness with the Gamestop stocks. I saw soo many sad/happy shocking stories of regular people that for once
got a big money break. The reality is that many of them used the money for good. Paying off loans, medical bills, or paying it forward..

What would you do with that amount?

If the government simply printed enough to do that, it would be devastating because of the devaluation of currency.

If math defying magic occurred, some people would be wise, and lots would be stupid, and pretty soon, life would look much like does today.

a reply to: JAGStorm

It could never happen from the U.S. Treasury as Ketsuko said, the math just doesn't work in regards to inflation.

BUT....

Could you imagine if all criminal assets were seized by the U.S. government?? All the crooked defense contractors, wall street thieves, big pharma, pedophiles, foreign bribed politicians etc...

Jeff Bezos' fortune alone divided amongst ever American citizen ( including children ) would be over $500 per person. What if his Washington Post was guilty of accepting treasonous influence from China?

Either way rather than print new money, taking $ out of the hands of the folks actively trying to subvert this nation would be a better route. My 2 cents.

originally posted by: ketsuko
If the government simply printed enough to do that, it would be devastating because of the devaluation of currency.

If math defying magic occurred, some people would be wise, and lots would be stupid, and pretty soon, life would look much like does today.

The government doesn't have to print another dollar, it's the hundreds of millionaire and billionaire industrialists who hold the keys to the economy and could easily give every American $6,000 and still be worth millions.

I always use that argument with UBI. Why be stingy? Do they just want to keep everyone poor? Why not a ULI (Universal Luxury Income)? Give everyone 100k a year. It doesn't take much thinking to realize what would happen.

Massive inflation is just the first thing that comes to mind. Anything of limited supply skyrockets especially real estate. Lots of people would just quit working meaning huge job gaps meaning demand can't be met, meaning prices skyrocket elsewhere. Anyway, lots of bad stuff followed by equilibrium that basically takes you back to where you were in the first place.

The reality is there is a principle of no loss no gain that is pretty universal. If you get something for nothing, it almost never really adds what you thought to your situation. Work hard and trade fairly and you will have what you need (maybe not what you want).

Everyone's life has what they are supposed to have. It isn't the case that everyone has the same stuff in every life nor can it be made that way artificially (socialism/communism). The principles of the universe can't be undermined.

a reply to: TzarChasm

Except at some point, you have to stop confiscating because if you wipe them out just to give everyone $75,000 the economy would be destroyed. $75,000 isn't enough of a stake for anyone to start up anything in order to rebuild what you tore apart to create the distribution.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I'd buy a bad ass set of matching 1911's with the cool compensators. And a nice case to display them.

a reply to: JAGStorm

If they ditched medicare/medicaid and social security for a year, you'd be pretty close to that number without touching any defence budgets.

And if you did give everyone that kind of money upfront, you would not need those three of those services anyhow as you could give social security a break for a year and everyone could still afford decent healthcare.

But I would fear that with that kind of injection of cash to society, half would just blow it vegas style, the others would do great for a year and during that time the price of everything gets jacked up to unsustainable levels. Food, housing, Fuel etc ...

Then comes the bigger problem. Would be the number of folk who, with their new found wealth, continue in jobs they hate? Why stack boxes in Amazon or be a cashier in Mcdonals when you have $70,000 in the bank right ? Why not live it up for a year or two ? Some would use this time to get unskilled, start their own business etc.. But I reckon there would be a severe work shortage for manual labour. The likes of cashiers, would quickly be replaced by self serve registers. Once automated those jobs never to return.

Does beg the question though as to why social security is currently costing 171,000 for every person that collects, when the average payout is $30,000 - I mean I know "administration", but seriously... ?

a reply to: TzarChasm

Watch Bill Whittles "eat the rich" video on YouTube. You are wrong.

a reply to: JAGStorm

What would you do with that amount?

75k

Spend most of it on drugs, alcohol and fast women, and squander what was left.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Most people are stupid and would blow it on depreciable property like a car, travel, electronics, and drugs

I'd be afraid that the package of Reese's pieces I pick up at the check out stand would suddenly cost 20 bucks.

$22 trillion dollars of additional debt for our nation would devastate the dollar.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: JAGStorm

What would you do with that amount?

75k

Spend most of it on drugs, alcohol and fast women, and squander what was left.

Yup. And in a years time we'd be hearing the same progressive song about rich and poor. The people who pissed away their money would be asking for help again.

All it would do is cause hyper inflation in short term.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
For those saying it would cost too much blah blah blah. You know what else costs a lot, all the weapons, all the other crap that we pay for that is worthless.

I'd argue with you, but when the sitting president is financially owned and utterly beholden to several major foreign nations who possess rival status, yeah... US spending on weapons is pretty worthless.

Just imagine if instead of spending Trillions to companies and people they owe favors to they just spent that money among the 330+ million people.

3 trillion would be 9k a person for 330 million people, certainly better giving it to the people rather than companies that still fire employees and pocket the money.

I just read that Mitt Romney proposed $3000/kid and the Democrats are running with it. I have friend with 7 kids. I might temporarily adopt some real quick.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: JAGStorm

Most people are stupid and would blow it on depreciable property like a car, travel, electronics, and drugs

The older I get the more I think those things are not stupid,... especially travel.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I was thinking about this earlier. Instead of giving ceo's performance bonuses to avoid taxes. Give companies the ability to give workers bonuses and then get the equal amount in taxes taken away. Would help give the economy a boost.

originally posted by: wdkirk
$22 trillion dollars of additional debt for our nation would devastate the dollar.

We're going to get easily that over the next decade regardless of who occupies the White House. Expecting at least $15 trillion new debt in the Biden years alone.

As for the OP: if they print and hand out that much, price inflation will more than erase it. We'll be worse than where we started, with a debt hangover to boot. And then what... go to the presses for another rescue? Beware of pushing ourselves into a cycle that we won't be able to escape.