Billion?

[SDML]

I got this in the mail the other day and thought I'd share it here. Not sure of the accuracy of the figures (I didn't check the math), but the sentiment is spot-on:

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 it's 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??

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax < BR>Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting Licen se 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

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!'

[conley]

you could make that argument about any major city. if you look at the budget of new york city and divide it by the number of residents or apartments, i'm sure that too would work out to an ungodly number. but you're not counting the infrastructure costs, like building roads, schools, hospitals, airports, etc. to suggest that 250 billion dollars would go right into each families' pocket is a bit of a distortion.

[Peter1469]

That calculation was a bit of a distortion although it does give a nice image of what the amount actually means.  But there is still the question of the number and amount of taxes that we pay.   

[SDML]

Conley, I think you missed the point.