Comment Re:Bailouts for them, crumbs for us (Score 2) 246
I have noticed an issue on slashdot is that most of the folks here do not seem to understand what defines wealth. Wealth is not money. Wealth is the goods and services that money buys.
Americans are wealthy because they enjoy more goods and services than most of the rest of the world. Europeans are wealthy because they too enjoy more goods and services than most of the rest of the world. It isnt about the quantity of dollars or euros.. its about the quantity of goods and services.
Printing up and giving out $1 million to everybody would destroy the economy because the first effect will be a lack of incentive for people to produce goods and services. So the very thing that defines how wealthy we are will immediately become short in supply, so the first effect to handing out that cool $1 million is to make us in general less wealthy.