BEFORE this weekend's bailout plan, I figured the potential liability of what the U.S. Treasury Department had already done amounted to $8200 per household.
[assumptions laid out here: http://mikekr.blogspot.com/2008/09/wall-street-bailout-so-far-8200-per.html ]
Now, with an additional $700 billion proposed this weekend, that's another $6300 per household, for a total potential financial loss of $1.6 trillion, or $14,500 per household.
I see REI currently has a Cannondale road bike on sale for $800. So, for what this bailout might end up costing US taxpayers, we could get 18 Cannondale bicycles for every household in the US.
http://www.worldbicyclerelief.org/ provides new bicycles in poor third world countries at $134 each. (I've seen these -- these are very sturdy bikes with strong racks). That works out to 11.9 billion bicycles. Yes, friends, with what this might cost US taxpayers we could buy nearly everyone in the entire world two sturdy bicycles.
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