The best idea for help the American economy ever: give everyone $1 million

Miscellaneous General
1

You know, sometimes you just get into situations wherein, you are talking economics with someone who is a) stupid or 2) ignorant or iii) hasn’t thought about these issues for more than 10 seconds in his life prior to that conversation or four) a combination of any or all of the above.

This happened to me yesterday.

I am not economist, but I have listened to almost every MP3 on mises.org, so I am no slouch either.

I can’t even remember how the conversation started, but the guy said that to end this economic crisis once and for all we need to:

  1. Get rid of Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps and welfare (I’m with ya so far)

  2. Get rid of taxes (good, good. I like what you’ve done here)

  3. Have the government give everyone a million dollars ([:^)])

So, I start telling him that that would collapse the economy. Explaining all of the problems this would cause, including absolutely massive inflation. He said, “Just freeze all prices. No more inflation.”

Stunningly, a third person, originally not involved in the discussion, said that it was a good idea, and that “we” need to try something new, because everything else has been tried and it’s failed, and that hey, sometimes brilliant ideas are considered crazy.

I responded with something about crazy ideas being considered crazy, and I disengaged from the discussion.

Now, this morning, reflecting on the conversation, I can’t help but be amazed. These weren’t a couple of self-identified Marxist. Just a couple of schmoes who probably don’t read USAToday, because it gets too deep into the issues.

2

Ah, the problem . People are now able to see how bad things really are and how complicated it will be to fix them. You can’t just stop Social Security, you can’t just stop Medicare, you can’t just cease and desist on taxes, you sure can’t do all that and give 320 million people a million dollars. No, but I don’t blame them for wanting a magic bullet to just take the problems away. No such luck.

Compare it to taking a house, that has a lot of add-ons integrated into it, and preparing it for remodel. You have to slowly remove parts and pieces. There has been a lot of conversations about; What is wrong. How it became wrong. Why it is considered wrong. But no one has a game plan. No one that I have ever read.

I say; Complaining about a problem? Fine, what’s the problem and how do we fix it?

I’ll pass on the million dollars if they decide to do that, it won’t be worth anything at that point anyway.

3

That’s the most hope-inspiring reaction I’ve ever read of. If most people in the US would agree to just kill the state provided that they’d get a million dollars, I’d be VERY glad to print the sum and hand it to them. As things are, there shall be inflation and there shall be a State. Whereas under this “idea” there would be inflation, but no state after all. It would be great!

Of course, people wouldn’t agree with that, or they’d clamor for a State the moment they’d figure out that the dollars they got would be good only as…you know that. Otherwise it’s the best “stupid” idea I’ve ever read.

4

If there was a little red button that would do away with government, would you push it? What if you were paid a million dollars?

5

I would push it fairly quickly. But, in general I think there are a good amount of people beggining to break away and form more “radical” ideas. I think people are seeing that following the events of 9/11 they’ve all been neo__conned. But, people generally tend to get there ideas mangled and distorted along the way thanks to the American media. The overwhelming majority of Conservative commentators should bear the burden of the blame as well. 20 years of listening to Rush Limbaugh can really start to eat away at all logical thought (my dad is a victim of this). He keeps calling me a “quack” and “arrogant”, just because I happen to disagree with just about everyone these days.__

And trust me, I’m fair from “arrogant”…