As everyone should know, the Republicans and a couple of Democrats killed the unemployment extension and jobs bill last week. The reason behind not passing the bill was the cost -- around $25 billion.

Has anyone considered the cost of not passing this bill? I've been surfing around the 'net and have not found much on this subject so I'll take a stab at it.

The bill would have prevented around 6 million people's benefits from expiring. What will happen when these people's benefits expire? It is impossible to predict how many will lose their homes or turn to crime, but it is a very safe bet that many will. When faced with a survival situation, people's morals tend to fly out the window.

Let's take a hypothetical case -- just one -- and try to extrapolate from that. We'll call our unemployed guy whose benefits will now expire "Joe."

Joe has a little house. He has two kids. His unemployment check of $400 a week kept them -- barely -- from being thrown in the streets.

What will Joe do when his benefits run out?

Let's say Joe spent $100 a week at the local grocery store when he had benefits. Let's say Joe steals $100 worth of groceries every week until he gets caught. Not being a career criminal, he gets caught after a few weeks.

The cost to the store is $300. The cost to the community of arresting Joe and putting him through the system is in the thousands, even if he is sentenced to probation and community service.

But Joe is not done. He still has a mortgage to pay. He decides to try his hand at bank robbery. He hits a bank for $5,000 and breathes a big sigh of relief, promising to himself that he'll never do it again, when he doesn't get caught.

Cost to the taxpayer who will cover the bank's loss: $5,000.

A few months later, Joe is running low on funds again so he hits another bank. This time he gets caught. As he was already on probation for ripping off the supermarket, he is sentenced to five years in prison. Cost to taxpayers: $200,000.

Suddenly those $400 unemployment checks aren't seeming so expensive.

It gets worse, though. Joe's kids are now homeless, fatherless, and emotionally disturbed. What are the costs to society? I don't know, but I'd wager they are high and persistent.

Now to extrapolate: Let's say that only one in ten of our newly totally desperate unemployed people turns to crime to feed their families.

That leaves 600,000 "Joes" out there stealing food, robbing banks, eventually getting caught and put through the system. Joe cost taxpayers $205,000, and he cost the grocery store $300.

The cost of not passing the bill is around (drumroll):

$205,300 * 600,000 = $123 billion and change

That's less than the annual cost of our two stupid wars but considerably more than the cost of the unemployment extension.

Even without crime, there will be other costs, such as the cost of all the new foreclosures and the added burden on homeless shelters.

Just something to think about...