An Open Letter for Fixing the Economy
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Posted by Thomas Alan Gray Jun 29, 2009 |
Subject: AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. HARPER
Dear Prime Minister Harper,
Please find below my suggestion for fixing Canada 's economy.
Instead of giving billions of dollars to banks and car companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan:
There are about 20 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:
1) They MUST retire. Twenty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
2) They MUST buy a new Canadian CAR. Twenty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.
3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.
4) They must send their kids to school / college /university - Crime rate fixed
5) Buy $50 of alcohol / tobacco / petrol a week... there's your money back in duty / tax etc
It can't get any easier than that!
P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances.
If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know. If not, please disregard
Now, at first glance this may make sense and seem like a great idea – especially if you're over 50 and would receive the $1mil under this proposal! For now, let's ignore the questions of whether there is any such thing as a "Canadian car" and who in Canada calls gasoline "petrol". Let's look a the math.
First, is that 20 million figure even correct? Probably not. StatsCan's high-growth projection for 2011 gives roughly 12 million people 50 and over. That figure includes the 50 year-olds, instead of excluding them as the suggestion does, but that's okay. So knowing that 12 million is a little high, it's still more accurate than the 20 million in the "suggestion".
Twelve million Canadians at $1 million apiece is $12 TRILLION dollars.
12 000 000 x 1 000 000 = 12 000 000 000 000
According to Debtclock.ca, Canada's current national debt is less than $475 billion (just under half a trillion) at the time I write this. That's already an atrocious figure, but this "suggestion" would make our national debt about 24 times bigger. Yikes!
The Canadian stimulus package in the budget for 2009 is only $12 billion, a thousandth of this proposal.
So: A suggestion to spend 12 trillion dollars and make our debt 24 times bigger. Doesn't look too good.
Forward this if you like but don't believe it for a second. It's based on weak statistics, bad math and worse thinking.
Sources:
Canada's National debt: http://www.debtclock.ca (now THAT's scary!)
People under 50 in Canada: http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/demo08a-eng.htm
Canadian 2009 stimulus budget: http://geospatial.blogs.com/geospatial/2009/03/canadian-stimulus-package-in-budget-2009.html
Canadian house prices: http://www.byebyeblighty.com/1/canadian-average-house-price-reaches-record-high/ and http://www.livingin-canada.com/house-prices-canada.html
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