Some of you may have seen this email floating around and found it rather amusing. On the first read through I thought it was funny and didn’t give it much thought, but the second time I read it, some of it made pretty good sense. I mean, if we had the money to pay off our mortgages, that would help with the housing crisis. So, I thought I’d repost the email here so we could discuss it!

“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 bona fide 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 billion that equals $425,000.00 (our note: actually, that equals $425 – thanks guys!).

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!”

I cut out the end to the email because it’s not making a point to anything. But, let’s consider this option for a moment. I’m not an economist, so the shockwaves of this type of bailout could have massive effects that I’m not foreseeing. However, in my mind some of this does make a little sense.

For instance, AIG took their bailout money and sent their executives on a $400,000 retreat. The same executives that put the company in financial ruin, I might add. So, instead of giving the money to irresponsible companies and letting it go down the drain, there’s some sense to giving it back to the people and really stimulating the economy.

I’d even say that the government could require people pay off their mortgages and do like they did with the first stimulus check…if you owe it, pay if off first and then cut the check for what’s left over. The point of the money would be to help the economy and take care of this bad mortgage debt, which was the point of the bailout in the first place. Instead of giving the money to the mortgage company, why not just pay off the mortgages?

That really does solve the housing crisis in terms of bad debt. It also frees up these lenders to loan to first-time homebuyers and rebuild their mortgage programs. Not to mention the fact that most people will probably do one of three things with the money left over: 1.) blow it – helps the economy by putting that money into circulation; 2.) save it – helps put money in banks and builds up the capital to lend out to others, particularly small business owners, which will in turn help create new jobs; 3.) pay off credit card debt – helps solve some of the credit crisis. None of which is a bad thing.

What are your thoughts? Is this just a stupid joke being sent around, or is there some validity to the thoughts? Obviously something like this wouldn’t happen, but let’s play ‘what if.’ What parts, if any, would you change?

Related posts:

1. Financial Bailout vs. Universal Healthcare
2. Sunday Round-Up!
3. The Top Financial F*Ups of 2008
4. Is Consumer Debt a Good Thing?
5. A Financial Vent: Lay off the Panic Button!