However, that amount is *still* less than what we are now spending to fix the economy.

No it is not, the president's entire budget proposal is less than a tenth of the amount listed above. That includes national defense, social security, education and everything else, 40 Trillon dollars would be more than the net worth of the US and the EU combined.

Keep in mind that as a libertarian, I have opposed TARP, the Auto Bailouts and AIG. I do not want to go to far into this as it violates the policy of the forum.

I am not saying I support current economic policy, there are plenty of problems with that as well, just that this "simple" solution would lead to hyper-inflation. (Imagine going to the grocery store with an SUV full of 100 dollar bills just to buy milk, bread and eggs) The reason this would happen is that in order to come up with the figure you would have to run the printing presses night and day. Paper that could not be backed by actual physical assets.

Even if you could spend 4 trillon on this hairbrained scheme ($100,000 per person) the funds would not be sufficient to cover retirement expenses for more than 3 or four years and buy a house and a new car.

I would urge you and anyone to please pick up a copy of a book on Basic Economics, written by someone with actual credentials in the field before buying into this "simple solution"

Sorry to go off like this, but one of my major pet peaves happens to be people espousing things on economics that do not have an understanding of the fundimentals of how macro-economics works. I urge everyone here to take time to educate themselves on the basics of economics before buying into "magic bullets" authored by those who cannot even get the math correct.

Dr. Thomas Sowell, a professor emeritus at Stanford University in California, a noted author and columnist has an excellent intro to economics written for the joe average person, I highly recomend it.

The book is titled Basic Economics, A Common Sense Guide to the Economy. It is in it's third addtion and is widely available from most major book sellars.