US financial market bailout tab hits $4.7 trillion

Ok, I just read this story on Yahoo:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_meltdown_oversight

And the following statement in the above story got me to thinking:

"Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government's maximum exposure could total nearly $24 trillion, or $80,000 for every American."

Now let's ask ourselves, what if the government did NOT give all of that money to filthy rich corporate executives of companies that have no hope of recovering from their massively failing companies and are simply going to pocket our tax dollars in the form of "bonuses" (take AIG for example)?

What if INSTEAD the government gave that same money back to the American people? If every American received a check from the government for $80,000 what do you think would happen to our economy?

How many credit card and bank debts would get paid off this year?

How many people would buy a badly needed new car this year?

What do you think the retail market would look like by the end of the year?

With the massive influx of spending, what do you think would happen to the job market?

hmmmmm........

Since coming up with this approach requires several solid seconds of thinking with the use of common sense, I am sure that nobody in the government has considered this or ever will.