Simple Minded Thought of the Day
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 1/26/09 @ 9:32 am - Filed Under National Politics
If the government wants people to spend their stimulus check instead of paying off debt then why not just issue the money as a Visa gift card?
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13 Responses to “Simple Minded Thought of the Day”
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Jeff . . .
A gift card is a debit card. You can use it just like any other credit card to eat at your favorite restaurant, go shopping at the mall or pay your electric bill.
Now days, even the Indiana Unemployment folks issue specific amount debit cards to recipients. Merchants are ready willing and able to accept them to pay for anything.
Gadfly,
That’s exactly the point…
Wouldn’t it be simpler to take the 3 trillion and just give 100 million Americans making less than $50k a year (you know, the ones who pay no federal income tax) a check for $30,000 and then just bill the rest of us for it?
Oh wait a minute……
Jeff, money is fungible. Say I decided to go back to EMT school and already had $450 saved for tuition, which would pay for the full cost. Dad sends me a check for $450 to help pay for it. Since I would have taken the course no matter what Dad did, he is really paying for the X-Box and “Grand Theft Auto” game that I buy with the extra money.
I found this interesting. In r/e $825 billion giveaway….With that amount, they could give a check for $17,000 to every homeowner with a mortgage in the U.S…..
Or
Fill up every licensed drivers gas tank in the U.S. for 5 years….
Or, we can just give it to all of Congress’s friends like always.
Robert,
You’re right of course but what the heck does that have to do with the post?
The point to my post was that I keep hearing pundits say that these stimuli don’t work because people are saving the money (the horror!).
So I thought about that problem for no more 15 sec and came up with a simple-minded solution. I’m not sure why anyone else hasn’t been talking about it yet.
Hell, it kills two bailout birds with one stone. Gives people money to blow and allows banks to collect on the transaction fees…
A friend of mine recently discovered that her child support payments, which were run through the county for years and now through the state, are now coming in the form of a rechargeable debit card. She complained because her practice has been to deposit the child support into a savings account for college for the two children.
She is charged to convert the debit card funds into cash to deposit the money- which is the card issuer extracting a fee to reimburse itself for what it has paid to the State of Indiana to get the contract and what it anticipate earning if the card was used to buy pizza and soda.
It means that if you give people money for a specific purpose, they aren’t going to use it for that purpose unless they were planning on doing so anyway. I’d spend my stimulus debit card on groceries that I was going to buy anyway, thus increasing my savings account by the value of the debit card. If just simply giving me money is the goal, then just use direct deposit and don’t crank out millions of plastic cards that will just end up in landfills by the end of the year.
Mark,
She needs to read the fine print(PDF file)
To Get Cash at an ATM or Bank with your Indiana Debit Card:
• You are allowed one (1) free cash withdrawal with each deposit to youraccount at EITHER a participating bank ATM or a Visa Member bank teller window.
• You can get free ATM cash withdrawals ONLY at National City Bank, Old National, MoneyPass locations, or 7-Eleven store
Unless she’s getting more than $400 per week, she can make one withdrawal for free and deposit it into her savings.
Mark,
One more thing. Se doesn’t have to take it via debit. She can go for direct deposit.
As of January 2008, the Indiana Child Support Bureau will no longer be printing paper checks for child support payments. This means that all payments posted by the State will be sent to custodial parents electronically, either by direct deposit or by using the new Indiana Visa® Debit Card.
Hahahahaha.. It’s not going to be delayed, the house just killed it.
Obama loses.
The House has defeated a bill to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12.
House Republicans succeeded in scuttling a bill to delay the transition, which is scheduled for Feb. 17, less than two days after the Senate unanimously passed the plan.
Looks like the first $350B stimulus was nothing last Nov. Here’s what our wise government is doing..coming now…major economy freight train wreck.
“In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night with spending increases.”
Roll call vote
All Republicans voted against President Barack Obama’s spending plan. Of the Democrats, 11 voted against the measure. Among them: Allen Boyd, D-Fla., Bobby Bright, D-Ala., Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., Parker Griffith, D-Ala., Paul Kanjorski, D-Penn., Frank M. Kratovil, D-Md., Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, John E. Peterson, D-Penn., Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Gene Taylor, D-Miss.
Tim Zank, I think giving americans $17,000 is a great idea to stimulate the economy instead of this mess they’re coming up with. But you know somehow in Demolican or Republicrat b.s. someone would be discriminated against,not be fair to renters, or something.