Wednesday, October 1, 2008

How Much Is 700 Billion Anyway?

How much is 700 billion dollars anyway? I thought my dad put it into a great perspective. He said something along these lines: Suppose you went down to the corner gas station and decided you were going to buy a lottery ticket. You buy a scratch off ticket and find that you win 1 million dollars. Cool you think to yourself, I think I will go back tomorrow and try it again. Sure enough in the morning you make your way to the corner store, buy your ticket, and again win 1 million dollars. Do have any idea how many days you would have to buy a lottery ticket and win 1 million dollars, EVERYDAY, to recoup 700 billion dollars?

700,000 days

or

1,917.8 YEARS

Does that help put it into perspective? It sure did for me. Although I was already against this Big Government idea of us bailing out idiots that can't manage their money or businesses. This is absolutely ridiculous. I keep hearing over and over again that we need this to open up the credit markets... isn't credit what got us here to begin with? Bad mortgages, car loans when the car is worth significantly less the day you sign the note, massive credit card debt, and our lovely big brother leading suit with trillions of dollars in debt. So what's the solution, MORE DEBT!!!!! I am sick to death of this bureaucracy. Oh, and lest you think our two "choices" for president are going to be on our side, and help to find a way to clear this up in a way that helps the normal family..not the big wigs. Think again they have way too much vested interest...they are the big wigs! Ok, I am done venting now :)

2 comments:

Middle-Aged Moi said...

It IS such a mess! I don't know that much about it, as I'm a Canadian, but from what I gather, there is a LOT of debt going on and people are overspending waaaay too much.

Anonymous said...

RAH RAH SIS BOOM BAH!

NO BAILOUT!

DOWN WITH DEBT, UP WITH ... WITH ... COLD HARD CASH. ???

anyway, I'm with you.

(and on a totally different note... I'm still having occasional crack-up moments thinking about Los Palmos... in Gonzales. I can't help it. See, I'm laughing now. That was an awesome moment. Kinda like Jeff's "Hanging in the Valance" instead of Balance. Maybe we could take this on the road.)