The point of a stimulus package is to get money into the hands of consumers, so they can spend that money and get the economy moving again.
One thing none of the economists or politicians have given any thought to is the fact that since the 1990s, employer after employer has gone from paying people once a week to paying every two weeks. Once a practice among corporations employing highly paid, salaried workers, it has crept down to the lowest-paying jobs. A lot of people who used to get paid weekly never recovered from the switch, and built up consumer debt in large part as a result of having to cover living expenses with money that came in less frequently.
Obama needs to pass a simple bill, fast, that offers businesses a write-off of 150 percent of the cost of processing payroll, and put it into effect immediately. He also needs to do an aggressive campaign to promote this idea, and push banks to lend to companies that use credit to cover their payroll.
Pushing for weekly pay for America's workers will help solve a cash flow problem that has been haunting workers for almost two decades. Workers who get paid more often will likely spend more, because they know they will have more money coming in in a week. They will feel that they can let money go and begin to pay off their credit card debt.
Write to Barack Obama via the website whitehouse.gov, and tell him you want to get paid once a week. Call or write your congressional representatives and senators and tell them the same thing.
Let's put paychecks in the hands of hard-working Americans on a timely basis, and see what happens.
