Economic Stimulus Payment

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 by Philly0381 | Discussion: Community

This came my way today so I thought I would share.

Sometime this year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?

A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?

A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?

A. No, they are borrowing it from China. Your children are expected to repay the Chinese.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?

A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China?

A.  Shut up.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

 *   If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.

 *   If you spend it on gasoline, it will go to Hugo Chavez, the Arabs and Al Queda

 *   If you purchase a computer, it will go to Taiwan.

 *   If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico, Honduras, Chile, and Guatemala.

 *   If you buy a car, it will go to Japan and Korea.

 *   If you purchase prescription drugs, it will go to India.

 *   If you purchase heroin, it will go to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

 *   If you give it to a charitable cause, it will go to Nigeria.

And none of it will help the American economy!!

We need to keep that money here in America. You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the US.

 

First Previous Page 2 of 2 Next Last
Philly0381
Reply #21 Thursday, February 5, 2009 10:24 PM

If I may then, what do you propose that should be done or changed about the situation, other then seek punishment for those that caused the problem. Explain in as few or as many words you need the course of action the peoples of the world need to take to assure future generations that this will never happen again

Take a moment and think about the question I asked.  For the sake of this discussion, lets give you the power to be able to make the changes needed.  What would you do?

vStyler
Reply #22 Thursday, February 5, 2009 10:29 PM

Starkers... perhaps we should just assume that everyone is pissed off at the banks and bankers... and move on.

We get it, we got it.. it's done.. dusted.

starkers
Reply #23 Thursday, February 5, 2009 10:38 PM

As far as being indoctrinated.. no idea where you get that from either. News flash.. people are going to disagree with your rants.. learn to handle that without name calling or don't post em mate

There was NO name calling... just an observation of some of your thinking and politics, during and since the US election. As for it being a rant... they were thoughts put up for discussion/debate.  I am quite aware that not everyone will agree with me... but isn't that the point of discussion?

Anyhow, I could have expressed myself better than I did and I apologise.... so let's agree to disagree without getting into an argument, OK?

vStyler
Reply #24 Thursday, February 5, 2009 10:39 PM

name calling.. thought calling.. whatever it was, i kinda resented it.

All good now mate.

starkers
Reply #25 Thursday, February 5, 2009 10:55 PM

Take a moment and think about the question I asked. For the sake of this discussion, lets give you the power to be able to make the changes needed. What would you do?

I thought thast I answered that with....

Sure, businesses have to operate at a profit to survive, but when those profits are severely eroded by huge salaries and cash bonuses to execs who in no way actually earned them, it defeats the purpose. So yeah, while I agree with you that economies need to return to the 'gold standard', we also need to keep in check the runaway greed and excesses of the 'priveleged' few

No matter which way you slice it, runaway executive greed is the common deniminator... put the brakes on that and half the problem is solved... the other half takes care of itself when profits and resources are more evenly distributed/better used.

Like the Macquarie Bank's retiring chief... who needs a $36m golden handshake when they're already a multi-millionaire?  Tell me a brake on this kind of extravagence wouldn't help the World's economies grow/become stronger.

 

Philly0381
Reply #26 Thursday, February 5, 2009 11:19 PM

we also need to keep in check the runaway greed and excesses of the 'priveleged' few

Fair enough, now just how do you go about doing that?  Keeping in mind the modern day rule of 'He who has the gold makes the rules.'  The people in power, with the authority always make the rules.

k10w3
Reply #27 Thursday, February 5, 2009 11:38 PM

o about doing that? Keeping in mind the modern day rule of 'He who has the gold makes the rules.' The people in power, with the authority always make the rules.


How about we fill the positions of congressman/senator the same way we fill the positions for jury duty...and pay them the same as we pay people for jury duty and make a rule stating that if they are recipients to bribes/donations/gifts from lobbiest, they go to jail.  Of course, nothing will get done in government, but our taxes should go down a little bit.

Philly0381
Reply #28 Thursday, February 5, 2009 11:54 PM

A noble thought k10w3, it would get the regular citizen back involve, but unfortunatelty in this day and age not a real practical soloution for the problem.  I like asking the question, when did being a Politician become a career choice.  I know the answer and why.

starkers
Reply #29 Friday, February 6, 2009 3:01 AM

we also need to keep in check the runaway greed and excesses of the 'priveleged' few

Fair enough, now just how do you go about doing that? Keeping in mind the modern day rule of 'He who has the gold makes the rules.' The people in power, with the authority always make the rules.

He who has the gold may make the rulesto a large extent, but without the consumer they have nothing coming in to bolster their profits... from which they take the exorbitant salaries and bonuses.  Furthermore, many ordinary people are shareholders, so the way to curb the excesses is for ordinary people to hurt them where it hurts most.... boycott the products and services, firstly, then offload the shares and invest where they're more deserving.  The point is, it is we the people who provide the source of their incomes, and if we let the board members and directors know that we are not going to tolerate corporate excesses anymore but sustained refusal to provide the funds.

OK, nobody said it would be easy, but a concerted effort to deny them the funds, with a clear message as to the reason why, is going to get the board members and dirtectors thinking.  For example, oil company A is spending to excess... so everybody goes to company B and/or C for a week or two.... profits dry up to the tune of billions.  Once company A gets the message and adjusts its remuneration policiy, move on to company D, E, F, G, etc, etc.

In some cases, it wouldn't be necessary to boycott or dump shares,,, they'd see what happened to those before them and adjust spending accordingly to avod the huge losses.  The problem with the idea would be getting everyone/enough people involved... and then not have them whimp out because they don't want to drive an extra five minutes down the road.  People like that, however, deserve to be ripped off in my opinion... because they're not prepared to do the hard yards to improve their lot, or anyone elses, in the long run.

Me, I'm more determined and downright stubborn.  About 8 months ago the local hardware store manager short-sold me on 6 metres of coaxial antenna lead by a metre, then accused me of cutting it off so I could return it to get an extra metre.  Right!  He effectively called me a cheat and a liar, thus he got a few choice expletives (lucky for him I'm non-violent) and a promise that I nor any of my family or friends would do business there again.... and we've stuck to it.  Although the store is just two minutes drive down the street, my nephew and I drove half an hour to the next nearest hardware to get more coaxial cable on Wednesday.... not that it was enough without rubbing salt into the wound.

We tallied up what we had all spent on hardware products comined and dropped it to let him know that his filthy treatment of me had cost him $14.700 over the last 8 months... and would miss out on another 9.5 grand my landlord would have spent there on roofing insulation, had it not been for me.  It won't get me the extra metre of cable I paid for, but he's learned a valuable lesson... don't f**k with me.

Jafo
Reply #30 Tuesday, June 11, 2013 5:11 AM

ah...thought it was 'necrothread superior'...but no....'twas a spammer....

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