Got this from a friend online, you won't believe it

[seg4527]

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.. 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 Congress for $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.

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 !!!




















My reply:

Man, seeing the right wing drop from where they were 6 years ago to actually being on the brink of insanity is sweet!

[LiberteToujours]

1. How much has Iraq cost so far again?

[OnionPatch]

2. This letter doesn't mention infrastructure

I have the feeling that repair of infrastructure would be a big chunk of that money.

[Burma Jones]

3. Your friend needs to understand government contracting

and where those billions will go. S/he need not worry.....most of that money will go to wealthy executives and attorneys, not those filthy stupid people that were clogging the airwaves with their whining about food and shelter.


Oh, and there will be plenty of construction jobs too.....




Oh, and a billion Brain cells constitute the entire capacity of the GOP Congressional Delegation

[MADem]

4. I think you kindly overestimate the GOP brainpower, there... n/t

[Dawgs]

5. I'm sorry,

I have no problem with the email. If we, as a society, can't rebuild any community with over half a million per resident then we have some real problems.

Also, I don't think this email is meant to show that every resident should be given this money, but how much a billion dollars is actually worth. Just for a second, try to think like the average American. They would eat this up.

[Burma Jones]

6. What, did you miss this part

"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."


So, yeah, they'll eat this up....Now, if you apply this to the Defense Department, or the Federal debt service, or the windfall from the repeal of the estate tax or CEO compensation they would swoon....

[ClintonTyree]

7. You're not figuring in.........

business at all, industry at all, infrastructure at all or many other things that make a city a city. It's not like every man, woman and child in New Orleans is going to handed a check for half a million dollars. Use your head here. This is another GOP straw-man used to infuriate non-thinking Americans by issuing skewed facts to support a flawed premise.

[donheld]

8. My old buddy Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/trivia/billions.asp