The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend amount was announced an hour and a half ago and this already popped up on my Facebook newsfeed: "hmmm I suddenly have the urge to go shopping...perhaps it's that extra $900 I have coming my way!"
And soon enough will come the barrage of giant new trucks around town, half of which will get repossessed six months from now....
*Disclaimer: to be fair, a lot of people do spend their PFD on necessary items, such as heating fuel. Or rather, since it doesn't matter where you earn the dollars you spend on any one thing, that's the money they think of as their heating fuel money, etc. For us, it's "paying hospital bills after our baby is born" money.
It just sickens me how many people waste their "free money".