Sinking in Red-ink
by Freeman Ashworth -- September 27, 2008
I recently received an e-mail message from a friend who forwarded it to me. It bears repeating because it has merit. I don’t often dabble in political or financial situations, but this one is too good to pass up. However, first let us consider the huge financial numbers that our media and our government toss around these days. They talk of billions and even trillions of dollars as if you or I were talking about our finding the money to fill our gas tanks. Well, what do these fantastic numbers look like on real paper? Consider what they really say.
“When we allocate a billion dollars for this project,” Everett Dirkson once claimed, “and a billion dollars for that project and a couple of billion for another project, pretty soon we are talking about big money!” Big money! – Hah! Do you realize how tall a stack of a billion one-dollar bills would be? Does anyone?
I measured the thickness of one of my Shakespeare tomes and it measured about two inches for the 800-page book. That would be about 400 pages per inch. Since the publishers printed it on both sides of the paper, which means we have about 200 sheets per inch, and since each sheet is about the same thickness as is a dollar bill, which would mean that a stack of two hundred one-dollar bills would be about an inch high. That is only $200.00. Now divide the 200 into one billion (that is a one with nine zeros following). The result is a stack five million inches high of one-dollar bills, or about 417 thousand feet or nearly 79 miles. If we were to lay that stack along I-88, it would reach from Cobleskill nearly to Binghamton. Moreover, that would be just one billion one-dollar bills. Since my wife balances my checkbooks, maybe you had better do the math yourself. Now here is a portion of that e-mail message I received verbatim:
“I'm against the $85 BILLION bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a "We Deserve It" dividend. To make the math simple, let us assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S. citizens, aged 18+. Our population is about 301 million counting every man, woman and child. So, 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up. Now, divide 200 million, 18+ adults into $85 billion - that equals $425,000.00 each! Yes, my plan is to give that $425,000 to every adult as a "We Deserve It" dividend. Of course, it would NOT be tax-free. So, let us assume a tax rate of 30%. Everyone would pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25.5 billion right back to Uncle Sam! It also means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife would have $595,000.00!”
This article is a bit facetious, I must admit. Out financial dilemma could not be this simple. However, I still wonder how can we possibly be so deep in this financial hole? Eventually all these chickens will have to come to roost and we have to pay for it. The other alternative is for the government to jack up inflation – to pay back cheap money for having borrowed expensive money earlier. Inflation is a bear I hate to think of, for I live on a fixed income. I purposely wrote this in red in my journal for a reason to represent the massive amount of red ink these institutions spill and I wonder where the ends of the limits of greed really are, or if an end does exist at all. It is something to think about before this next election. Until later, cheers!