Since the Wall Street manufactured crash of '08, we've paid banks $85B/month

[magical thyme]

in a fruitless attempt to get them to loan to small biz and the 99%. Instead, they paid themselves humongous bonuses and frittered and gambled the rest away.

In 2010, the US population over 60 = 56,986,401.
www.aoa.gov/Aging_Statistics/future.../By_Age_60_and_over.xls

If we'd adopted the updated Townsend plan in 2010, that $85B would have paid $1,491.58 to each citizen over 60. IOW, it would have financed more than half the Townsend SS payments.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024213086

And since the Towsend plan required that the money be spent, that money would have cycled right back into the economy and accomplished what the Treasury buybacks intended.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024213086#post26

In fact, by using the SS fund to pay most of the Townsend plan, there would have been extra from the $85B to put into updating our infrastructure and education.

[arcane1]

1. My employer rode out the crash, but now isn't even trying to lure new customers.

Their single-minded focus is buying up smaller banks to make themselves larger.