The business section of the St. Petersburg Times asked its readers for plans to fix the economy. They ran some of the answers on Feb 8, 2009.

This was #1.

Put America first

Patriotic retirement: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force …

pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations.

They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings — unemployment fixed.

They buy new American cars. Forty million cars ordered — auto industry fixed.

They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage — housing crisis fixed.

David Otterson, Largo

I like that idea. Sadly, a million dollars might not be even close to enough to retire on any more. It still makes me smile. Now if you were over 60 and it was tax free, you got a deal.