Idiocracy II: The Return

Did you ever get that email that just won't quit coming? First one person that you know forwards it to you, then another, then another ... have you been getting the same one I've been getting over the past few days? I've just received it for at least the fourth time. It must be 500 or 1000 words long, but here's the "good" part:

I'm against the $85 BILLION bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a 'We Deserve It' dividend. To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S. citizens, aged 18+.

Our population is about 301 million counting every man, woman and child. So, 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up. Now, divide 200 million, 18+ adults into $85 billion - that equals $425,000.00 each! Yes, my plan is to give that $425,000 to every adult as a 'We Deserve It' dividend.

Here was my reply:

Good Lord, but I wish people could do arithmetic. This is about the fourth or fifth time I've seen this basic email.

$85 billion, in scientific notation, is $8.5E+10.

200 million people: 2.0E+08

$8.5E+10 / 2.0E+08 = $4.25E+02. That's 4.25 times ten to the second power dollars. That's $425.

That said: by all means, tar and feathers is way the hell too good for the bailout pushers. A clean lynching is really a little too good. But still ... calculators are cheap and easy to use.

Look: I am a sick-minded cynic, thoroughly convinced of the futility of activism of any sort. So, I'll be a hypocrite as well, by recommending activity to my readers. Please, friends and neighbors, laugh at this wherever you see it. Maybe we can laugh this one right out of existence.

Yeah, sure.