# How would taxpayers "profit" from the bailout scheme?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-taxpayers-profit-from-the-bailout-scheme/465575>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 28, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-taxpayers-profit-from-the-bailout-scheme/465575 "2008-09-28T13:33:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-taxpayers-profit-from-the-bailout-scheme/465575/21 "2008-09-29T22:52:55Z")

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> [@robcaro](#):
>
> :smack: I should have done the math.:smack:
> 
> It would be OK if the figure was 85 trillion… I am going to tell my son to take a math course.🙂

Don’t feel bad. CNN did the same damn thing on the Mike Gonzalas show.

Comenting on a readers email that suggested that we give every American One Million dollars (que Dr. Evil). Or another email that suggested only :rolleyes: $750,000 ----

“A million apiece! Sounds pretty good” said Mike Gonzolas.

Zimbabwe anyone?

:rolleyes: Never mind the bad math. But what that would do to our and the worlds economy.

I know very little about economics. But I knew that that not only sounded like a real real bad idea, the math was completelly wrong.

I emailed his show with a correction, I suspect with about a thousand or ten other people. But sadly, I bet a bunch of people went to sleep that night with dreams of paid off mortgages and new sail boats.

CNN later corrected themselves. I was sputtering a bit about the misleading info that night to my Wife. She saw the retraction the next day on CNN.

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-taxpayers-profit-from-the-bailout-scheme/465575/22 "2008-09-29T23:09:10Z")

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> [@mazinger\_z](#):
>
> I would add “consistently” to the end of this sentence.
> 
> The real estate market rises and falls like the stock market. What was the DOW (or the equivalent) at the Great Depression, like 800? It’s over 10,000 now. The guy I bought my rental property from in Southern California bought his after a huge depression of local prices at something like $95,000. He made more than 100%. Prices have declined in that area, but people are still selling for far more than what I paid for it. Yes, inflation plays a factor. However, do understand that the real estate market does not act like a real asset until it is sold. In the meantime, it’s just rent (or in my case, a shelter to ride out the housing bubble and collapse). Smart people have a HELOC open immediately, if they have to borrow against equity. Even in the middle of nowhere red state USA, those property prices are much more than 20 years ago. One can always find a price deflation if one scrutinizes enough.

My grandfather bought his house in 1933, from a staockbroker-he paid $11,000. That house sold (new) in 1924 for $42,000!

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