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A billion

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending your tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising
agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in
one of its releases.

a.. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
b.. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
c.. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
d.. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
e.. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at
New Orleans - It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congressfor $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans.
Interesting number, what does it mean?

Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man,
woman, child), you each get $516,528.
Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home
gets $1,329,787

Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

HELLO Washington, D.C. !!!...........................Are all your calculators broken????

Maybe everyone should just flood their houses, then we can all be on the "big easy" street for the rest of our lives, and forget about working, and paying taxes and all that useless stuff!
 

jdwilson44

New member
I love calculations like this - they always put things in perspective for people when the numbers are so big. Here are two of my pet peeves:


Cost of Iraq war so far (based on $247 billion number I got from internet)
is approximately $828.86 per US Citizen (based on population number of 298 million)

Total cost of US Aid to Israel since 1973 broken down by US citizen:

(based on calculations used in this article: http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1209/p16s01-wmgn.html)

1.6 Trillion dollars / 298 million US citizens (current) = $5369.13 per US Citizen

Total Benefit per Israeli citizen (based on approx 6 million population:

$1.6 trillion / 6 million citizens = $26,666.66 per Israeli Citizen.

I wish some foreign goverment would kick in and buy me a new car.:17875:
 

Junkman

Extra Super Moderator
figures don't lie, but Liars do figure..... Those figures are correct to the extent that they are averages, however, the people of Israel don't actually get that money, there government does. As for the cost of the war in Iraq, that figure assumes that everyone in the USA pays taxes, and we all know that many don't, including, but not limited to the wealthiest of our citizens... Junk.....
 

jdwilson44

New member
I only posted the numbers like that to show how much benefit the country of Israel receives on a per citizen basis. You are correct - the money that is spent goes directly to the goverment - but in the end it is a benefit to the citizens because if they were to receive the same services they receive now and did not receive US aid they would be kicking in that much more in taxes from their own pockets.

I am not even sure if the numbers the article uses are correct - the economist who came up with the figures is also adding in other costs that stem from US aid and support for Israel (that we might not be paying otherwise).

Like bczoom's original post pointed out though - the goverment of the US pisses away money like it grows on trees. This has far reaching effects on us as citizens of this country - in ways that may affect us severely in the future - if they aren't already.

I could not run my personal finances like this - I don't see how the goverment can run indefinitely like this either. Something has to break sooner or later.
 
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