I just read this article on the San Luis Obispo Tribune. It has a very interesting title : “Attention IOU holders: California wants to give you back your money”.
Read the article for full details. In short, a while ago, the State of California ran out of money. Oops! Hate when that happens. But, instead of having to pay some huge finance charges at whichever banks it was using, (like, you know, everybody else), California had a different idea. It asked (rich) people and (well to do) businesses, to let the State borrow some more money. In return, the State of California issued a bunch of IOUs. Yes, actual IOUs, (although, the article states that the piece of paper the IOU came on was not worded quite so clearly as that).
It’s like being in elementary school all over again. Where your bestest friend forever forgets his or her lunch money, and asks to borrow some of yours. The lined notebook paper comes out, and the friend hastily scribbles an IOU and and adds his or her signature, and then you both nom some super greasy pizza from the school cafeteria. Remember people doing that back when you were a kid? Now, try and recall what happened to those IOUs. Go ahead. Take a minute or two. Give up? Here’s the answer to what happened to most of those: they got lost, and forgotten about, and you never ended up getting your money back. Most of them got disintegrated in the washing machine when your mom did the next load of laundry, and threw in a few pairs of your grungy jeans.
Same thing is happening right now, with the State of California. Lots of individuals, and a bunch of businesses, all over California, have unclaimed IOUs right this minute. And, just like the notebook paper IOUs, back when you were a kid, a bunch of people lost track of where their IOU ended up at, and then forgot all about them.
So now, California has this bizarre problem. It has the money to pay back the IOUs, and, unlike your BFF back in the day, California is trying to notify the people who are holding the IOUs, so they can come claim their money.
* “Across the state, 89,000 residents and businesses — including 2,315 here in San Francisco alone — are sitting on some $50 million in uncashed IOUs from the state, a souvenir of California’s most recent, but by no means its last, budget crisis.
If, sometime back in July, you lent California a bunch of money, and you just can’t remember where you put that silly little IOU…. then, in my opinion, you probably don’t actually “need” the money in the first place. And you didn’t need it then, either. In other words, the State of California, the state that has an incredibly high number of unemployed people right now…..somehow has a bunch of money, and is doing it’s best to make sure that this money goes back into the hands of…. people who are already wealthy. The deadline to claim your IOU is sometime in September 2010. All the rich people have plenty of time to go figure out which bank vault that IOU is in, or which vacation house they left it at.
Yes, I realize I am being incredibly sarcastic. And yes, I understand that this money was a loan, and loans are meant to be paid back at some point (with interest… let’s not forget the extra money the IOU holders are getting back). I get that. All I’m saying is that this article is making me ask a few questions.
How did the State of California manage to gather together enough money to not only pay back all it’s outstanding IOUs, but to do so with interest? Does this have something to do with all those mandatory Furlough days it was requiring state employees to take? (For those of you that don’t know, Furlough days happened at least once a month (generally more than that), where all the workers were forced take a day off, for ZERO pay).
Why on earth isn’t the State of California using that money to create jobs? If it did that, it would have less unemployed people. Less unemployed people means that more people can go out and buy things, (and pay State taxes on each and every item), and be good little Capitalists once again. More people paying a bunch of (already existing) State taxes means that the State of California would be able to collect more money, which it could then use to pay off the IOUs to the people who aren’t struggling to keep their houses and feed their children.
Priorities, State of California, Priorities! Time to take a look at yours.