Have you heard this one lately?

There are roughly 50 million employed people in the United States who are over
the age of fifty.  The government should give them $1 million each (the new
stimulus package) to retire with the caveat that they each purchase a new house
and buy a new car.  This would "fix" the housing industry (since 50 million new
houses would have to be built), and "fix" the car industry from ruin.  People
would have to be hired to build the houses and cars, thus creating lots of new
jobs.  The 50 million newly-vacant jobs would also have to be filled, thus
"fixing" the unemployment "crisis." And (are you ready for this?), it will only
cost $50 million.  Fifty million people get 1 million dollars equals 50 million
dollars, right?

It's a really nice thought, but... Wrong.

Let's do the math -- long hand.

50 million people            50,000,000
$1 million each            x  1,000,000
                         -----------------
                             00 000 000
                            000 000 00
                          0 000 000 0
                         00 000 000
                        000 000 00
                      0 000 000 0
                     50 000 000
                  --------------------------
                    $50,000,000,000,000   <--- That's 50 Quadrillion Dollars

Way more than our current (and, hopefully, future) national debt.

If you gave 50 people $1 million, that would be $50 million.  However, you would
have an angry mob of 49,999,950 people asking why they didn't get their money.
If you gave 50 million people $1 each, that would equal $50 million.  Probably
not enough to retire on, though.

Blessings On Your Day,