whats a billion mean?

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 28 Sep 2006 18:02

I borrowed this post from major pothead on another forum-

this mainly pertains to us americans but im sure other governments out there do the same same

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??

This is too true to be very funny

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 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.

COMMENTS: Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago
And there was prosperity, absolutely no national debt, the largest middle
class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What the heck happened?????

Puts it into perspective, doesn't it?

jon · Post by **jon** » 28 Sep 2006 19:34

The use of these comparisons is irrelevant and does nothing but distort a one sided representation. The US government may spent that much in only 9 hours but that number does not take into account how much money is going into the government and the country during the same period of time.

The money going to New Orleans may be high but all that money doesnâ€™t go directly to the people. It goes towards infrastructure and rebuilding of more than just homes. I bet a lot of other major cities have had that amount of money or more put into them over the period of the hundred years it took them to grow into what they are today. No only do they need to rebuild they must tear down and take away what is ruined.

Numbers can be used to represent a lot of things and distort our own perception of ideas and topics. This is just another example.

janis · Post by **janis** » 28 Sep 2006 19:34

so where do all these taxes go in the USA? with all these taxes there would seem to easily be enough money for universal health care and education.

Also in the new orleans case you have to remember that most of the money will go to rebuilding infrastructure, the families affected probably won't get anywhere near that much.

PegLegHolly · Post by **PegLegHolly** » 28 Sep 2006 20:17

taxes in the united states goes towards state employees, federal employees, schools, city government buildings, cops (i guess that falls under state employees), ROAD CONSTRUCTION, public transportation, some government endorsed health insurances, sculptures, parks, college scholarships, and many other things

this is funny that this topic is brought up because i watched slc punk today.

about new orleans the main thing that i see as the problem through the whole katrina situation was that there was a dam being worked on in a certain area for at least 20 years but it was never finished and there were large cracks in the infrastructure. the dam had to be released when the storm was going on "because it would have caused more damage if it were broken" but some people speculate that someone was trying to better off the higher class communities and eliminate the lower class communities below the dam.

you cant believe much that you hear from any source, whether it be the government or michael moore. you have to take what you hear and expand your knowledge and find out what all you believe to be true or false.

governments have been screwing over their own countries for BILLIONS of years. america isnt so bad. at least we have the freedom to express our own opinion and to ask questions and canibalism is frowned upon

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 29 Sep 2006 05:59

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Worl ... ending.jpg

Don't you americans just hate your government sometimes....I mean come on.....this is just stupid.

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 29 Sep 2006 06:02

janis wrote:so where do all these taxes go in the USA? with all these taxes there would seem to easily be enough money for universal health care and education.

Damn no edit button.

My previous post shows why the USA has no universal healthcare and a faltering school system. Lame.

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 29 Sep 2006 06:26

yeah the US sure does suck... Maybe the rest of the world should do something about it, ohhhh wait, check the military spending chart.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 29 Sep 2006 12:38

We should get rid of the income tax in favor for a consumption tax.

Aleksandr · Post by **Aleksandr** » 01 Oct 2006 03:26

crazylegs32 wrote: b. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

1,000,000,000 minutes = 16,666,667 hours = 694,444 days = 1903 years.

2006 - 1903 = 103.

So Jesus dead for over 100 years 1 billion minutes ago. People say our calander is not correct and could be few hundred year wrong either side of 2000 so is possible but 30 year in 200 is unlikely.

Tax is important for making society run. For place like New Orleans there is much more to spend money on than just rebuilding houses and giving money to people. All services need to be rebuilt. Power, Water, Gas, telephone are not cheap to get to every house. Schools, hospitals, churches, police stations, courts, roads, football grounds etc. do not build themselfs. A new dam might need to build?

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 01 Oct 2006 21:35

My take on the post was the whole realization of what a billion is and how politicians throw billions/trillions around like nothing.

I have no problem with the 25 billion for repairing Katrina damage, that was included by the author for some reason. But I do believe that the whole tax situation and our nations budget situation has gotten far out of hand.

sampotter · Post by **sampotter** » 02 Oct 2006 05:33

In all fairness, I would be surprised if you, from that post, understand now what a billion is in terms of taxes and funds.

RunAmuk · Post by **RunAmuk** » 02 Oct 2006 14:59

i just left New Orleans about 5 months ago.my brother and grandfather lost there homes. and iv only seen about 4,000 bucks(max) per person who sits in a HUUUGe line and fills out a 3 ring binder full of forms.

family of four gets over 2 mill...i wish.dam i couldah been rich!

fact of the matter is no way LA could never get 250 bill.

if they did, they wernt spending it on locals. and it wasnt a lot of things a big city needs to

__----FEMA BLOWS----__

max · Post by **max** » 03 Oct 2006 00:06

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

I have no idea why this poster thinks that by each resident of new-orleans "getting" 500000$ New Orleans will somehow be "rebuilt". He simply took a forecast government reconstruction budget and divided it by the number of residents.

Maybe he could have divided that number by the number of windows in New Orleans... and come up with... how much each window would get??

Anyway, in the event that a reconstuction budget were divided evenly between the residents how much would actually be rebuilt? Easy: nonthing at all. People would just take their new found riches and move to a city that actually has running water, electricity, housing infrastructure, telecomm infrastructure, proffessional activity.... yeah that's what the 250 Billion USD will be used to reconstruct, and if you think that each New Orleans resident can be trusted to "chip in" then you are simply insane.

HighDemonslayer · Post by **HighDemonslayer** » 03 Oct 2006 10:16

Yeah, we've seen what residents spend the money on if it is given directly to them (whiskey and prostitutes).

The fact is , the people who lived in N.O. don't deserve ANY money, they lived below sea-level, like idiots.

-n

RunAmuk · Post by **RunAmuk** » 10 Oct 2006 23:19

fuck off

RunAmuk · Post by **RunAmuk** » 11 Oct 2006 00:14

you live in a desert you stupid fuck.

-flaming-

i hope you get hit by a bus

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 11 Oct 2006 00:25

Instead of random flaming, try discussing/arguing against what he's saying. Posts like your last aren't going to take the thread to a good place or change anyone's mind for the better.

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 11 Oct 2006 03:27

Yup, they sure won't. And I know.

Hello, my name is Sam Colclough.

You may know me from such posts as Fuck you you fuckity fuck fuck, or How to get in Moxie's pants (if you can fit).

Today, I'm here to speak with you about flaming. Flaming is very easy to do, because people are stupid, and its so apparent. But, it is easy to forget that every situation has multiple perspectives, and that the more perspectives you can realize, the more likely you can improve the situation for the better.

Well, I've got to go now, so remember to keep a large glass of water nearby whenever browsing modified. Why? you ask?

TO PUT OUT THE FLAMES

BIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTCH!!!

<3
Sam

this has been a David Clavens style post... enjoy

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 11 Oct 2006 06:07

lol sam!

And dude... demonslayer.... could you be any more insensitive if you tried? geez. You even knew he'd left there recently and experienced all that.

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 11 Oct 2006 08:03

HighDemonslayer wrote:The fact is , the people who lived in N.O. don't deserve ANY money, they lived below sea-level, like idiots.-n

Just like those idiot Dutch!!!

whats a billion mean?

whats a billion mean?

Re: whats a billion mean?