Photo Credit: The Autograph Source

Sundays are my days, meaning me-time. The phone turns off, I check emails in the morning and try my best not to again (which doesn’t happen to often), cook, plan the week out, watch Netflix movies, and watch and read as much global news as possible. So this past Sunday, I was looking over CNN.com and my eyes were drawn to a article about how much of the bailout can really be yours. There was a question from Miranda Marquit of Utah. Read below.

Question: “If we just gave all the bailout money to taxpayers, how much would we each get? I’ve seen $25,000, $300,000, $1 million – what’s the real answer?” — Miranda Marquit, Logan, Utah

Answer: $9,718.49

To arrive at that figure, CNNMoney.com took the total of the bank bailout, $700 billion, and added that to the proposed stimulus spending in the House of Representatives bill, $819 billion. That totals $1.519 trillion.

We then divide that number by 156.3 million, which was the total number of U.S. filers in 2008.

So: $1.519 trillion divided by  156.3 million equals $9,718.49 per U.S. taxpayer.

So now you can pick up your bottom lip and ask yourself “Why don’t they give the money to taxpayers?” Here’s a great followup question to that along with two answers by experts in the economy, Lakshman Achuthan and David Laibson which talks about what the people would really do with it, I for one would definitely do as their answers say.

Expert: Lakshman Achuthan, managing director, Economic Cycle Research Institute

Answer: “The government could give money to you or me, and that would create demand, which could be a very good way to break the recession. But you and I are not very confident about the economy, and if you think about what I’ll do, there’s a good chance I’m going to save it.

But the government is looking to have that money get spent and to have it multiplied somehow. Our economy is based on people spending money. So people saving money doesn’t help.

For an individual, I would say it’s a good idea to build up your savings and to tighten your belt, because there’s so much uncertainty about how long the recession will last.

But the advice you give to policymakers when you want to revive the economy is to get people to spend money.

So I don’t think that it would be a good idea to give everyone $10,000. That would preclude some very important triage from happening, such as funding unemployment insurance or getting state and local government financing needs met.

However, I would like the stimulus that comes out to have some support for households.”

Expert: David Laibson, professor of economics, Harvard

Answer: “Some economists believe that transfers to individuals will not stimulate the economy, since the recipients will save a large fraction of those transfers. The evidence is mixed.

In the short-run (a few months) it is true that a large percentage of the transfer would be saved. However, over the next two years, low-income households would spend most of the transfer.

A stimulus package should include both government spending and household transfers, particularly transfers and tax cuts for low-income households.”

Via CNN Money