I have a few thoughts regarding the stimulus plan.
With the dollars involved, the government could practically buy Microsoft, GE, GM, Ford, Boeing and Wal-Mart, and even throw in Exxon. The market value of all these companies combined, as of Feb. 9, was $923 billion.
Another way of looking at it is that the cost per job to create or save 4 million jobs is $225,000.
How about the dire consequences we are facing? Compare our current dilemma with previous times.
The unemployment rate when Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office was 24 percent. Four years later, at the end of his first presidential term and after all his big spending programs, the rate was 17 percent. Two years later, in 1938, it was 19 percent. In 1940, before the U.S. entered World War II, the rate was still 15 percent. The nationdidn't move out of double-digit unemployment until the beginning of World War II -- 10 years -- despite throwing tons of money at the problem.
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At the beginning of President Ronald Reagan's term in 1981, we had an unemployment rate of 10 percent, an inflation rate of 12 percent, and a prime rate of 20.5 percent. Within four years, we were out of the woods. By 1988, the unemployment rate was down to 5.5 percent after tax breaks.
Think carefully about what your government is rushing into and contact your legislators. There is time to get it done right.
Chuck Kolasinski
Duluth
