Now here's a thought experiment. I understand it's actually complicated for the government to give people money, right? It's sort of complicated because I guess there are lots of agencies involved and there's a big machinery of government at everything. And so since we're in an emergency, I thought, well, how could you shortcut that? What would be one way you could shortcut figuring out who to pay and how to pay and all that? Well, it seems like one way would be just to give everybody money.

Now you say to yourself, well Scott, that's not going to work because you'd be giving rich people money and driving up the debt and they don't need it. Why don't you be a little smarter and figure out who deserves it and doesn't deserve it? But here's the thought experiment part of it. In normal times, in a non-emergency time, you would expect a lot of bad behavior. So if somebody who didn't need the money and knew they didn't need the money got a check for a thousand dollars, would they keep it? In normal times they'd say, yeah, I paid a lot of taxes, I'm just gonna keep it. Yay, I got a thousand dollars.

But suppose the government says we don't have time to mess around, everybody's gonna get a check for a thousand dollars. This is just a thought experiment, nothing like this is gonna happen and I'm not really suggesting it, but it's a thought experiment to help you feel the situation, to read the room if you will. How many rich people would keep the money in normal times? Probably quite a few. They'd say, hey, I paid my taxes, I'll take your thousand dollars, thank you very much.

But suppose the government said we don't have time to sort this out. If you get a check and you don't need it, here's where to give it back. Here's where to give it to some agency or deposit it somewhere. How many rich people would automatically, without blinking, and even people not rich and even people who are not even doing that well, just say, you know, somebody else needs my thousand dollars. I didn't earn it. I'd rather get this small business going so I'll go give it to my local restaurant or something. How many people just wouldn't keep it? I don't know. It's an open question. Because whatever is happening now in the world, and certainly you can feel it, there's just something in the air that's connecting us all in a way that's never happened. I think it would be like a 98 percent automatic compliance. People would just look at themselves and say no, I think somebody needs it more than I do. Boom. I think it's just a guess. You can't really take a chance on that working. But maybe you could sort of say if you're doing well, pay it back or pay it forward or something of that nature.