A SIMPLE STIMULUS PLAN

I have come up with a simple economic stimulus plan that every American can participate in.

For those of us who were the last to have taken Economics as a mandatory class in high school, you will remember the one law of economics on the first few pages of any Econ textbook: THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH.

However, there is one other economic fact that I'm going to deal with here; and that is for any economy to flourish, then the money supply has to be in a constant motion, always exchanging hands. This is called CASH FLOW.

Any money that is taken out of circulation, lies stagnant and does not continue to flow hurts the economy more than helps. That is one reason that we are going through this current depression, banks and lending institutions are holding on to their money, afraid to lend it out. It stays in their coffers, making interest for their clients, but not helping new businesses to open, or for current ones to remain open.

I was thinking about this current stagnant money the other day when I came home and did something that I believe that 99.9% of all other citizens of our country do. And when I did this little task that we all do and take totally for granted, an idea came to me on how every American in this country has the power to help bolster our economy sitting right there in our homes. That little task I did was to take all of the loose coins from my pocket that I have accumulated throughout the day and place them in an old coffee can in my closet.

I thought to myself of how many other households in this country must have their own coffee can, glass jar, or even a five gallon plastic water bottle from a water cooler that is either filling or is filled with loose change accumulated over the years. I then thought of just how much of a positive effect it would have on our economy if everyone in the country took all of that loose change to their banks and exchanged it for paper currency. And then, took that currency --- and spent it on something --- anything.

Take yourself and your friends to lunch or dinner, pay off a bill or two, buy yourself something that you have always wanted but never needed, go out on a Friday or Saturday night and hit a few nightspots, (tip those bartenders and waitresses a little extra), anything, just spend that money and put it back into the economy.

Can't think of anything to spend it on? Then give the cash to your kids and/or grand kids for them to go on a little spending spree, send it to your kids in college for them to have a little extra spending money, donate it to a charity, or even go downtown, (in my case that would be Chicago), and hand it out to all the homeless on the street.

Just spend it and get all that stagnant cash back into the economy. This is old money, not all the new stuff that they are busy printing in Washington, DC. And don't stop there, find all that loose change that is around your house or office, lying in the ashtray or cup holder section of your cars. Ladies, take all that loose change that is in your purses, and that overstuffed coin pouch on your wallets, and spend it. In fact, ALWAYS give exact change when paying with cash. For example, if you have a total of $7.68 due at the cash register, instead if handing the cashier a ten or twenty dollar bill and get change back, find the sixty-eight cents in coins and give that to the cashier and get nothing but paper currency in return.

Citizens of America, we have the power to boost our economy in the most simple of ways, find all of our loose coins, and spend them. Do some simple math, if the coins you turn into the bank give you a return of $50, $100, $200 or even $300 or more, just multiply that by all the other households in the United States that have the same amount that you came up with and just think about all that money that is being put back into the local economies.

While we are at it, for those of you who have done it, go in and take your collections of those state commemorative quarters that have been minted over the past ten years, tear them out of their cardboard displays, and go spend those also. Those coins are far from rare, they will not change in value for another century and a half, and they are just sitting there doing nothing. Your collections will be far more valuable when you put those quarters back into circulation.

So there you have it America, a simple economic stimulus that we can all participate in. In these hard economic times, we deserve a little break and that little extra cash that we have not paid any attention to for so long is the way to get that break. I would love to witness how this one little "sacrifice" by all of us will boost our economy. And this plan comes from an average American citizen, not the self anointed geniuses that currently occupy our local and federal governments.