Thursday, March 26, 2009

Mortgaging Our Grandchildren

Everyone is still up in arms about AIG and the bonus babies. In fact our Congress responded to the outrage in typical fashion. First, they totally failed to mention that they specifically authorized the bonus money to be paid. Then, in the cover our ass move of the year, they decided that punishing the people who legally earned that money was in order. But it's ok, I have relaxed. I no longer fear the erosion of liberty at the hands of an incompetent Congress and Executive. Instead, I will simply watch as my nation becomes an impoverished 3rd World Nation within my lifetime.

Read on to see just how bad it is.

According to ABC News the bailout is up to $7,500,000,000,000. That would be Seven and one-half TRILLION dollars. But the news is all over a paltry how many millions in AIG bonuses got paid out. Or, it's about the housing crisis. I don't fault Obama for not solving all of this. But I think it's important that you get just how big a number 7.5 trillion dollars is.

To be frank, most of us cannot picture a number that big. Because of that we are outraged over peanuts while the truly big numbers are ho-hummed. So, I will try to break it down for you.

Working from right-to-left we'll show you just how big this number really is and how it applies to Mr. And Mrs. J.Q. TaxpayingCitizen. Off we go:

7,500,000,000,000

This is 7.5 Trillion.

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last two zeros, the "ones" and "tens" positions. This number represents a significant number of Americans hourly wage. The median hourly wage in Texas is $13.76 per hour according to the BLS.

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last three zeros, the "ones", "tens", and "hundreds" positions. This number represents what many Americans receive for a regular work week. This number represents what a reasonably priced television would cost. Or, you can look at it as a car payment.

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last four zeros, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", and "thousands" positions. This number normally represents an average family income for a month. Think of all the money you make in one month of solid work. Think of the time you invest to get this many zero's. Now look at how many zeros are still to the left of your number.

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last five zeros, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands", and "ten-thousands" positions. This number is most Americans annual income. All that work for a solid year of your life gets you to the fifth zero from the right. Your sweat, your taxes, your time. And there are still how many zeros to the left of your year?

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last six zeros, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands","ten-thousands", and "hundred-thousands" positions. If you are among the very top wage earners or salaried employees, you might hit this many zeros in exchange for a year of your life. More likely, you will not, but you can take heart that the cost of the average home will place you in debt to that level. Well Done!

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last seven zeros, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands","ten-thousands", "hundred-thousands", and "Millions" positions. Woo Hoo! We are now well above the 95th percentile in annual income. We are well above your debt level. We are entering lottery jackpot territory. Of course in today's inflated world, it's a small jackpot and Uncle Sugar's cut (income tax) will remove a zero just to keep you in your place. But, realistically, this number can also represent your entire life. Think about working from 18 to 80. On your deathbed let your greedy kids add up all the money you earned. You might fall into this category. Now, look at how many un-highlighted zeros we have to go on our quest to put it all in perspective. Does the sheer size of that number begin to scare you yet?

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last eight zeros, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands","ten-thousands", "hundred-thousands", "Millions", and "Ten-Millions" positions. This is medium lottery jackpot turf. In this rarefied area not even the taxman can cut you so deep that you won't be rich until you die. Well, they could. But it would take an act of Congress deciding to punish the lottery winners like they punished the AIG bonus babies. Does the term "Ex post facto" law and unconstitutional mean anything to you?

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last nine zeros, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands","ten-thousands", "hundred-thousands", "Millions", "Ten-Millions", and "Hundred-Millions" positions. This is so far above the normal person that only a huge lottery win will get you there. You, your children, and likely even your grandchildren could work from the age of 18 to 80 and die without all of you adding up to this. Just the interest from this figure would pay your entire debt for life and allow you to send all your dependents to college. The number is so big that most of us cannot form a mental picture of "One hundred million automobiles" in a row. And, there are still more zero's to the left.

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last ten zeros, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands","ten-thousands", "hundred-thousands", "Millions", "Ten-Millions", "Hundred-Millions", and "Billions" positions. You and I are so far out of our league that we cannot comprehend how we'd live our lives with that kind of money.

According to Forbes magazine:
For the first time ever, the tally of the world's billionaires crossed into four figures, reaching 1,125.

So, in a world population of 6,706,993,152 only 1,125 hit that mark. I'm not going to do the math for this. But I think you get my point.

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last eleven zeros, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands","ten-thousands", "hundred-thousands", "Millions", "Ten-Millions", "Hundred-Millions","Billions", and "Ten-Billions" positions. Of the 1,125 Billionaires on the entire planet of 6.7 Billion (notice the contraction so the number doesn't scare you) only 35 have crossed to this level.

7,500,000,000,000

This is the last twelve numbers, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands","ten-thousands", "hundred-thousands", "Millions", "Ten-Millions", "Hundred-Millions","Billions", "Ten-Billions", and "Hundred-Billions" positions. None of our top 35 even made it half-way to this figure. Imagine that, our number is so big that no one person on the entire planet has that much wealth. But, your government does. And they do it by making sure you and I with our 4-5 zeros pay every cent in taxes they can intimidate out of us. If that doesn't scare you, how about this. The highlighted number is only 1/14 of the remaining number 7. No human can comprehend this. Nothing but a computer can do the math because you and I would be wrapped around the axle trying to understand such a sum.

7,500,000,000,000

This is all the numbers, the "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "thousands","ten-thousands", "hundred-thousands", "Millions", "Ten-Millions", "Hundred-Millions","Billions", "Ten-Billions", "Hundred-Billions", and (finally) the "Trillions" positions. This is twice as much as we paid for the entire second world war and the reconstruction of Europe. It represents $1,118.23 for every man, woman, and child alive on the entire Earth today. Or, it could be $24,685.29 for each of the 303,824,640 men, women, and kids in the USA alone.

This means that an average family of Mom/Pop and the two kids are worth $98,741.16 in bailout money. After all the numbers shown above, we are down to the five digits that can pay off my home.

It's too bad that Congress has decided to award all that cash to mismanaged business that were over-regulated, over-taxed, and generally driven into the ground.

Personally, I think they ought to cut you and I a check and we will boost the hell out of the local economy by eliminating our house debt, then using the addition four digits of extra cash to eliminate the rest of our debts in a matter of months.

Imagine the stimulus if we took our three digit a week take home pay and could do as we dang well pleased.

Now, do we all get it?

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