3000 billion Euros (3 followed by 12 zeros) should be made available to help economic recovery. Who’s getting them? How are we going to spend them?
Let’s us look at the num63r5.
This post will be very short. It starts with a different question:
Does anyone know where the money to save the banks after the 2008 financial crisis landed?
I suppose that the answer is that it landed in the banks, which were the main origin of the crisis. They landed somewhere, where this money has made more…money? debts? cars? useless investments? making rich people richer? I don’t know. If someone knows, please let me know as well.
At the time of the 2008 financial crisis there were numbers about the amount of money made available to save the banks. These numbers were circulating like crazy and at that time I made a small calculation. I want to make this small calculation also now but related to the help for the economic start “after” the corona crisis.
The “after” is important because we are still completely in the “middle” of the problem. When we talk about “after” we don’t really know what we are talking about. The pandemic character of the virus spread has NOT disappeared. In Europe we have just learned how to take care of it if, if we have to do it. The numbers look better now than four weeks ago but the virus is still there ready to start again.
Anyway, lets look at the numbers to help the economy. I am again very ignorant and I guess that I am in good company. Every time I open a newspaper or different newspapers I read different numbers concerning the amount of money that should be made available to help the economy. Does the money from the EU contain also the money from the single European states? Are the so-called corona-bonds part of that money? Let me pretend that we don’t need an answer to these questions.
The central part of the post comes now.
As said, the European Commission wants to make 3000 billion Euros available. This is roughly the GNP of Germany, it is roughly one sixth of the GNP of the entire European Union. It’s a lot of money. But it’s the money that the entire EU can produce in two months.
We take 3000 billion Euros and we take 445 million citizens (the European citizens from age 0 to age 100+). Then let us take also some refugees that we want to help either in Europe or at their home place and include a better payment for those who have to work in the healthcare system and in the food industry and distribution. This makes a gross estimate of 500 million people living in Europe.
Now, 3000 billion divided by 500 million makes 6000 Euros per person.
What I mean is: let’s take all this money and let us split the money in equal parts among all citizens in Europe.
Everyone gets 6000 Euros, including all children, including all elderly, including the waiters, including the boss of Mercedes, including Cristiano Ronaldo, including all refugees, the homeless, presidents, secretaries and anyone else. Both the landlords and the tenants. Including a better pay for the really system relevant people. Those who have to work in critically relevant jobs, will sum up the 6000 Euros to their normal income. The others get only the 6000 Euros.
How long can we stay at home with a total of 6000 Euros per person? A family of four would get 24000 Euros to be spent essentially in food and internet. If we suspend all payments of rent, mortgages, taxes and so on, and we also suspend all payments of wages, pensions etc everyone gets enough to live for quite some time.
We freeze the entire Europe for two, three months. In the meantime, we think of what is the “after”, what to do, what should be allowed and how to reshape our life to make it pleasant and safe. If everyone stops for three months, nobody will suffer.
Once things are over, the money that has not been spent will be spent in something that people need. The industry will produce these things that people need. The things that nobody needs will not be produced. Everything will start again, nobody has to suffer. Nobody has to be afraid about their future.
Where will instead the money go?
We don’t know. But what we know it that somebody will have to pay for the bill. And this bill is exactly 6000 Euros per person, including children, elderly and so on.
We will pay this bill and never know what we got for it.
Maybe this was interesting. Maybe not.
Stay healthy and take care.