Let's Do Some Math With Obama's Stimulus Plan

Oh boy. My sarcasm is on full boil right now. Just read a news article that stated Obama's stimulus plan of 787 billion dollars has "saved or created" about 650,000 jobs and is on track to meet its goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs by next year. OK, that's awesome that jobs are being created and/or saved. But hmmmm... who's got a calculator handy? My calculator says that it will cost $225,000 for each job that's saved or created. Forget the costs of saving all those CEOs' multi-million-dollar-a-year jobs, that's not part of the equation. So who has the demographics handy for the United States and can provide the number of people who currently have jobs, so we can do a breakdown of what it's going to cost us in taxes to pay for these new jobs?

Also I'd like to see a breakdown of whether this will ultimately cost us more to have this many people working, or if it would have been cheaper to keep them on welfare or unemployment? My initial calculations suggest that, based on a family of 4 receiving welfare and food stamps to the tune of about $1200 a month, that same family could live for 15 years for the same cost of creating one job ($225,000) that very possibly won't exist in another 15 years. Assuming the worker in the family remains gainfully employed in that job. Remember, a minimum wage job (let's assume minimum wage is $8 per hour) only pays $16,640 per year before taxes and insurance withholdings. Less take-home than the $1200 per month from welfare and food stamps. Hmmmm... what's wrong with this picture?

I'm thinking, here in my world where my house payment is 40% of my take-home income and I'm STILL getting all my bills paid, having been gainfully employed steadily for the last 12 years and being responsible... I'm thinking that this over-hyped stimulus plan is really designed to create and foster an even wider gap between the lower classes and the upper classes at the cost of those of us in the middle.

Not to mention everyone who isn't going to get a cost of living increase this next year as a result of all this so-called stimulus... Social Security recipients, VA benefits recipients, most Government workers, military, etc. Gas prices have gone up, electricity prices have gone up, food prices have gone up. So what if housing prices have gone down? How does that help people who already have mortgages or rent payments? It only helps those who already have the money to buy a house. Shrug... doesn't seem to be much of an all-inclusive stimulus plan to me, just seems like it's going to benefit the people who already are doing OK. Hmmmmmm... Thoughts, anyone?