Note: I edited this 9/29, to add the # of seconds and equate it all with $.  Amazing how much better my brain works in the morning vs. the evening.

I recently got an email forwarded to me titled The Economic Plan I Endorse, which argued that the $85B buyout of AIG should instead be given back to us taxpayers, because it would equate to $425,000 for each adult American (the email estimates 200 million adult Americans).  The argument was that, with that much money, many could payoff our mortgages and thus ease the mortgage crisis by putting actual money back into the financial system.

It’s a great thought, but the numbers don’t add up.  It would take 85 trillion –not billion–dollars ($85,000,000,000,000) to get us each a payment of $425,000.  Using the 200M US adult estimate in the email would net each of us only $425 before taxes.  A better number to use for the number of taxpayers is 130M (based on the IRS 2008 tax rebates).  That nets us each a whopping $654.

But that got me thinking…what about the $700 Billion for the economic bailout plan that just almost got passed?  Well, it works out to $5385 per taxpayer (using the 130M number).  It’s a more substancial amount of money, but not enough to pay off a large percentage of mortgages.

So, how much IS $700B?  Well, according to CNN (and thanks to the Daily Show), we now know it would buy 2000 McDonalds Apple Pies for each American.  I find that nauseating.  What about other comparisons?  How about breaths we take in a lifetime?  Not even close (nearly 615 million).  How about heartbeats in a lifetime?  Surely that must be close to or more than 700B, right?