Posted on 12/19/2007 2:47:15 PM PST by captnorb
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?
A. Well, 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.
Washington, D.C .. HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken??
Tax his land, Tax his wage, Tax his bed in which he lays. Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes is the rule. Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat.
Tax his ties, Tax his shirts, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his booze, Tax his beers, If he cries, Tax his tears.
Tax his bills, Tax his gas, Tax his notes, Tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know That after taxes, he has no dough.
If he hollers, Tax him more, Tax him until he's good and sore.
Tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he lays. Put these words upon his tomb, 'Taxes drove me to my doom!'
And when he's gone, We won't relax, We'll still be after the inheritance TAX!! Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax CDL License Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel Perm it 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 Fe e 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.
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, 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 THE USA at least 100 times
What the heck happened?????
This HAS been going around the US, but its something few people understand to heart.

Don't I wish. That would "only" be $1.05 trillion/year. It's gone almost three times as fast now.
It’s apparently been going around since 1990...
Since 1 billion seconds / 60 seconds/hour = 16,666,667 hours
16,666,667 hours / 24 hours/day = 277,778 days
277,778 days / 365 days/year = 31.7 years.
And the email says one billions seconds ago was 1959:
Therefore, 1959 + 31 = 1990.
(One billion seconds ago from right now is 1976)
And you didn’t even touch on all the city and county “fees”
A million seconds is a vacation
A billion seconds is a career
And a trillion seconds is 315 centuries
Yes it has. A billion seconds from 1959 is 1991
You are right... based on $2.8T in expenditures, $1B ago was 3 hours and 7 minutes ago.
ping
If you were given a billion dollars at age 21 and spent, 30,000 dollars per day, every day and lived to be 100 years old. You would still have money left over.
There should be a way to get IRS general data along these lines - taxes paid by city, state and by alphabet within those jurisdictions.
Then when $500-million is proposed for the Palistinians, a local pol coud say “all the peoples’ federal income taxes in the (local) city of XYZ is being sent to Palestine”. The next time some wasteful government spending is exposed, it could be reported as “All the federal income taxes for those people in the state of XYZ whose last name begins with “K” just had their money peed away by . . .’.
Once you start personalizing the loss, the impact starts to sink in. Million, billion, etc. are just impersonal cyphers - start saying “Hey, YOUR money was given to . . .” it might raise some constructive taxpayer ire.
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