Political Math – “Billions?”

Ramblings

With all the excess dollars being spent by George W. Bush, I found some of these figures interesting and scary (from an email I recently received from a friend):

Political Math

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 Landrius (D),is presently asking Congress for $250 billion to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number, what does it mean?

a. Well if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans, every man, woman and child would each get $516,528.

b. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.

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

Washington, DC. Hello!!!!! Are all of your calculators broken?

1 thought on “Political Math – “Billions?”

  1. The inefficiency of governmental agencies is often astonishing and shocking.
    In Canada, health-care is publicly provided but many are against it, because the quality of service is lower yet the cost is higher. There are often calls for privatization to save money and offer better services.
    The sectors in British Columbia (my home) that are public yet should be privatized are the following (in my opinion, of course) :
    – Auto Insurance (yeah it’s a joke that this is public – it’s so freakin expensive)
    – Health Care (at least go for partial privatization!)
    – Hydro Services (it is technically speaking privatized but they have no competitors yet, so may as well be public!!!)

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