Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

By now, congress has approved the 850 billion-dollar bailout of the financial markets in addition to the 200 billion for Freddie and Fanny and the 85 billion for AIG. This all totals 1 trillion 335 billion dollars. I would like to put that in perspective for you. As of July 1, 2003, the population of people 18 years and over was 217.8 million (http://usgovinfo.- about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/ latestpopcounts.htm). For convenience lets round that up to 218 million. Now if you divide 1.335 trillion by 218 million the result is 5,206 dollars.

Five-thousand, two-hundred and six dollars is the amount that every person 18 and over would receive if the money were given to us instead of the financial market. Yes, that's 5,206 dollars for each of us, not each family but each person whether they pay taxes or not. A husband and wife would receive 10,412 dollars. Just think of what you could do with that money. Pay on or pay off your mortgage. Repay college loans. Put away money for college. Save it in a bank. Invest in the market. Pay for your medical insurance or pay off medical bills. Maybe pay taxes! It would be like injecting nitrous oxide into the financial engine.

Whether we get the money or they get the money, we will have to pay it back. Wouldn't it be nice to have a bubble up economy rather than a trickle down system? Congress and our "gooberment" have initiated a campaign of fear to convince us that the banks must get this money or else we will all surely suffer terribly. I urge each of you to look at the voting record of both houses of Congress and for all those who voted yes for this bailout, vote no for their re-election.

Finally, if you would like to know more about this catastrophe you can read this study at (http:// www.gwu.edu/~business/res earch/centers/fsrp/pdf/ Mono5.pdf). You may also want to do some research into usury laws and the effect they have on the economy. Try this link: http:/ /www.chicagofed.org/publications/ workingpapers/papers/ WP2002-02.pdf

Wayne Salter Suburbs of Perkins