WHY NOT JUST PAY OFF PEOPLES' MORTGAGES INSTEAD?:

$280,000 per job (Greg Mankiw, 11/24/08)

The Washington Post reports:

Facing an increasingly ominous economic outlook, President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats are rapidly ratcheting up plans for a massive fiscal stimulus program that could total as much as $700 billion over the next two years....Obama has set a goal of creating or preserving 2.5 million jobs by 2011.

Dividing one number by the other, that works out to $280,000 per job.