A Billion

I got one of those agenda driven corporate emailers:

"How many zeros in a billion?
This is too true to be funny. 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 Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS 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) 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.

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

Building Permit Tax CDL License Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax (Fed) Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel Permit Tax Gasoline Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Inventory Tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax) IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Tax Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service charge taxes Social Security Tax Road Usage Tax (Truckers) Sales Taxes Recreational Vehicle Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Utility Tax Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax (And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes)

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago... and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt... We had the largest middle class in the world.... and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. What happened? Can you spell 'politicians!' And I still have to press '1' for English. I hope this goes around U S A at least 100 times. What the heck is happening ?"


Papa's thoughts:
I think the banks should be allowed to fail and mortgage gamblers should lose their homes. Big auto should be allowed to go bankrupt so that smaller profitable greener car companies can buy up the assets and put the people back to work.

The wrecked parts of New Orleans should be plowed over and reverted to wetlands (the way they were) to protect the higher parts. That or we will have to inject billions of dollars every few years. There are some loud voices in LA that are pro burning things for energy, pro oil and pro drilling.  Arguably, oil burning likely has something to do with these larger storms. The phrase 'reap what you sew' comes to mind.

Of course Congress is not seriously considering giving LA that much money. That is conservative noise machine rhetoric.

A flat tax - percentage of income - directly linked to congressional spending.  It's a broad solution to a lot of problems.  Spending goes up, the flat tax percentage goes up. A fixed amount each year should go toward national debt paydown, starting as soon as the economy stabilizes. States could optionally add their own flat tax based on spending.

The anti other language crowd? I get it, you're afraid of a Mexican taking your job. Get educated. You've played the ignorance is bliss card for too long.

Were there really no taxes 100 years ago? Could someone explain to me how that worked?

Regarding politicians, you voted for them.