Posted on 08/23/2006 7:45:37 AM PDT by econjack
America : How Much is a Billion?
A Billion!!!!! Here's some thought provoking information -
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 billion seconds ago it was 1959... A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive... A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet... 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 Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number...what does it mean?
(a) If you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you 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.
The federal government contracted with local NO contractors to build the levees to the Cat III standard. The local contractors ignored the standard, failed to meet the obligations of the contract, diverted money elsewhere, and therefore were responsible for the breaking of the levees. The federal government doesn't build anything. They only hire people to build.
And they (the feds) didn't break anything, the hurricane and subsequent flooding broke the levees. You're not claiming the feds dynamited the levees deliberately are you?
LOL! That's a good one.
Carolyn
good bashing material for those so inclined but other than that it's pretty meaningless.
Getting ripped off by crooked politicians in New Orleans is not meaningless. Using taxpayer funds to rebuild New Orleans when private industry shuns investment there is not meaningless. Building in areas where insurance companies won't insure isn't meaningless. Reimbursing repetitive losses over and over again (Gulf Coast beach property)is not meaningless. A person can build a 250,000 house right on the beach and after each hurrican can collect that amount from the government and rebuild in the same spot again even though no insurance company will insure it. Are we being taken for a ride or what?
I say no to rebuilding New Orleans. It's time we stop getting ripped off by irresponsible and crooked local governments.
Oh don't worry, I don't expect YOU to do anything. If it makes you feel better just pretend that the taxes that YOU pay are going to Iraq, your local library, and your local schools. Problem solved.
I had no idea there were so many chickshit pussy people on this site. Hopefully this post is enough to get my account closed, because the people on this site are worthless do-nothings. Bye assholes!
Let's ask Hizb'allah. They seem to be throwing around a lot of rebuilding money.
Excellent rant. Unfortunately, it is totally "meaningless" to my point about the dollars discussed in the original post. Those are fun figures to play with but "meaningless" because they are totally inaccurate.
I say NO to "outrageous" and "meaningless" comments. If you care to defend the dollar breakdown discussed in the original post as being accurate then have at it. Your comments may have some merit but not in response to my comments about the figures used in the first post.
Jeeeeeez, and I thought you loved us!!!
I think that's being done. As I said in my post, rebuilding social overhead capital in most cases is a proper function of gov't. Rebuilding private property is not. In my mind, the federal gov't has no business being in the insurance, banking, transportation, postal, or energy business. (There are others, too.)
And that assumes you didn't put the unpaid balance in an interest-bearing asset. If you did that, you wouldn't live long enough to spend it all at that same rate!
They shouldn't be rebuilding a city that shouldn't have been there in the first place and got wiped out. New Orleans is below sea level and sinking. Let it go back to nature.
Okay...let's say the numbers are off by a factor of 100. The fact remains, the request was made by a senator and some people--especially in NOLA--are going to take it seriously. My point is still that there should not be one dollar of my money paid to someone who built a house 6 feet below sea level and wasn't smart enough to insure it. Again...not my problem and, hence, it shouldn't use my money.
Amen!
Was it the levees that broke or the canals? Is the canal system considered a part of the levees? Does the Army Corps of Engineers build and maintain both? I have heard several viewpoints on this.
It was your money in the first place.
Wow. Did somebody kick your dog today, or what? You've survived since 2002, and this put you over the top?
Poor you.
"I had no idea there were so many chickshit pussy people on this site. Hopefully this post is enough to get my account closed, because the people on this site are worthless do-nothings. Bye assholes!"
"Wow. Did somebody kick your dog today, or what? You've survived since 2002, and this put you over the top?"
"Poor you."
If we sent flowers and candy, ya think it would help?
True. :(
Once you willingly gave it to the IRS, it stopped being "your" money.
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