Economic Fix

Some economic genius sent out the following email with his plan for the $85B the government loaned to AIG. See if you can find any flaws with his plan.

Hi Pals,

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We
Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide
U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and
child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals
$425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It
Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a tax rate of
30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends
$25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A
husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads Put away money
for college - it'll be there Save in a bank - create money to loan to
entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth Pay for your parent's
medical insurance - health care improves Enable Deadbeat Dads to come
clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is
cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of
trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that
is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every
adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it. Sell off its parts. Let American General go
back to being American General. Sell off the real estate. Let the
private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.

Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion

We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in
Washington DC.

And remember, The Family plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest. Kindest
personal regards, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic; & nbsp;

PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it's either good for
a laugh, a tear, or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85
Billion!!


tp

Another continuance

The court was supposed to set a trial date today but Ragsdale's attorneys asked for another continuance and got two more months. The next hearing is November 26th. I've heard that he is out of continuances so they will definitely set a trial date on that day.

tp

A Very Happy Husband

Tony got very very lucky today! No, I'm not talking about that. Where's your mind? J/K.

Anyway, Tony and I had planned to go to the Costco Home Store after he got out of work today. The idea was to test out the beds they have for sell. Costco home actually has the beds, and other furniture, set up so you can try them out. I think we tried out all 10 beds they have, with the exception of the kids twin. We figured out which would be the best one. (It's so nice! It's a king of course, and when Tony gets in and out of the bed I can't even feel it. I am a light sleeper and more than once have grouched at Tony for moving too much or making too much noise. Poor guy!)

Before buying the bed, we decided to run over to the Costco next to the Costco Home and take a look at the TVs. Tony knew which one he wanted to show me. At first I said no. It's huge! But right next to the TV he was showing me was an identical one, for a lot less. Hmm... wrong tag? Nope, they had a floor model for sell. Still I was hesitant. So we looked at the other TVs. With the discount they were offering, this bigger TV was the same price as a smaller TV of equal quality.

Now I'm warming up to the idea, but not really convinced. Then a couple walks down the aisle and stops at our TV. (Ok, so we hadn't bought it yet, but we were standing there looking at it. Doesn't that make it ours?) The wife was actually trying to talk the husband into it. She told us that her friend had just bought that same one and loved it. (Yes, I did consider the possibility that Tony or Costco had paid people to walk down the aisle and convince would be buyers, but decided it was probably unlikely. Not definitely, but probably.)

Well I still debated it... but in the end I gave in, with the promise that we'd get the bed as the next big purchase. Tony went to get the sales guy while I stood guard. In the meantime another couple came down the aisle and stopped in front of the TV. (Hello, I'm standing right here?) This couple was comparing price too, but they just asked why it was such a better price? I explained that WE were buying the floor model. "Ohhh..."

Which is why Tony is a very happy husband. He has a new TV, more suited to his beloved BYU football games. I keep saying, "It's huge!" His solution,

"Get a bigger room!"

Have you noticed the commercial recently where the wife tells the husband "You're right. We need a new TV, just don't go overboard." Then you see the husband rush out the door with his credit card and keys. Or how about the lesser shown one where a man and woman are walking past an electronic store and the man stops to look forlornly through the window at the big screen TVs, and the woman must drag the guy away?

Well lately I feel like every time Tony comes home from Costco, he'll be figuring out how to get the Big screen into the house without my noticing. I'm mostly kidding about that, but still...

We do need, or will soon need a new TV. Our current one, (a Walmart special), has a few issues with certain shades of red. Plus it's a measly 27 or so inches. We've pretty much decided not to do a big vacation right now. We kind of agreed that even though I can get really good prices on cruises, that when we have time to go (Thanksgiving or Christmas) is at the high season and still more than we want to spend on a trip at this point.

In talking we figured it out that we could get both a new mattress set(which would mean new sheets and quilt, etc) and a TV for the same price as the vacation. I've been wanting a king size bed, and Tony has been wanting a king size TV. The question right now is how big to go. 40, 50, 60 inches...

Basically I just need to give the word and Tony has a couple choices ready to go. I even caught a peek at his phone the other day and he has snapped pictures of the possibles.

I love TV. I admit it, so I'm not sure what's holding me back. Maybe a bigger TV just seems too "man-caveish", or something like that. Guess I'll have to give in sooner or later. I'd really like that new bed...

Free Disney Tickets

I saw this on a website today and thought other people might like to know about it.

"Next year everyone will be able to come to a Walt Disney World theme park on their birthdays and get in free.

That's the cornerstone of the 2009 national promotional campaign, "What will you celebrate?" announced today by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Anyone showing up with a valid ID including proof of birthdate will get a free ticket on that day in 2009 for one of the theme parks at Disney World or at Disneyland in California."

Kind of cool...

Orlando...?

For work Tony is going to Orlando November 18-19. So now that opens up the idea of a vacation to the Orlando area after that meeting. I hadn't really thought of doing that, but it could be fun. My first thought was it would be more fun with a kid to see it all, but Tony said he's heard it is even better when you are without children. So what do you think? Has anyone been to Orlando in November? See the plans with us change every day. I'm a very indecisive person, but I like options, so it can get tricky settling on anything in particular.

Any one wanna cruise?

I sit here and talk about vacations all day long. So naturally, I want to go on one. A cruise or a regular vacation. There is always something more responsible to do with money, i.e student loans, but that doesn't seem to stop me from wanting it any way. I would love to cruise, but I'm not sure where to go. I would like to try the caribbean, but I am so much closer to Mexico. Also we have some skymiles that we could use to fly to a resort. What do you who have cruised before think about the two? Anyone have a family house on a beach somewhere? (J/K)
We have to go either after the 14th of November, or before January. I can't take time off from Jan.-April, and Tony can't before the 15th of November.
Probably we won't really go any where. It's still fun to talk about though.

Current happenings in Palizzi Land...

So I never post any more because really what do I do? Summer in Arizona is like winter for most people. The temperatures are too extreme to go out in with out the risk of dying. The difference is that in cold weather at least you can dress accordingly. In hot weather there is only so much you can take off. Plus with the new job, I really haven't been up to much. I basically stay at home most of the time, and on my day off, (other than Sunday, because lets face it, not much gets done on Sunday) I try to invent things to do.

Like some may have heard recently, I have made many a foray into the baby clothes aisle. Always a fun place to go shopping for me, and as my sister's current children will tell you, I do spoil them, so I figure this up and coming Brown baby shouldn't be neglected. By the way I got the best outfit today at Gap for the baby... but Melissa will have to wait.

Tony and I did do a little weekend get away trip over the holiday. We've been wanting to take a trip down to Mexico to see some of the furniture stores since we are so close, but haven't had time/money. Not that we have money now, but we thought we would just get an idea. We left after sacrament meeting on Sunday and drove to the border town of Nogales. You can just walk across the border from there, into Nogales Mexico.
It was a lot greener on the drive than I was expecting, and not nearly as hot as it has been at home. It's kind of in this valley with little mountains around the city and tons of houses crammed up the hills.
We just looked around on Sunday and then spent the night back in the US. Today we went back to a few stores where we had seen things we'd liked previously. I should mention that the furniture stores we had gone to see were no longer there, and we didn't see any others really. But I found a cool hand hammered copper pitcher, a glass blown pitcher, and Tony picked out a wavy tin mirror with Geckos on it. It was kind of funny because I was looking at this copper pitcher thinking the price was in pesos, but turns out it was dollars. I felt bad because I had spent quite a while deciding on it, and I was going to have to put it back because there was NO WAY I was going to pay what was listed, but I ended up getting it for a little less than half of the price, and Tony did say copper is expensive, so I was happy with my purchase. I liked getting to spend time with Tony. My days off are Sundays and Monday, and he's off Saturday and Sunday, so we don't always get to do fun stuff together.
I will say that visiting countries like Mexico, Venezuela or some of the other places I've been give me an appreciation for what we have. I don't get all sappy, but I notice. We've got it stinkin' good here in the US. We have air conditioning, clean water and voning laws. We have the Humane Society, which I thought of when I saw a dog that was quite literally starving to death walk down the street and no one seemed to blink. Anyway just happy to have what I do have.

Well it's pretty late. I should go to bed. I tend to never want to go to bed, because then I have to get up in the morning, which makes no sense, but that's the case. Anyway I'll try to post more. Maybe I'll invent stuff....