Trillions of dollars. Trillions upon trillions of dollars.
Let's take a closer look at the word trillion. I do this because I don't think the number has been well defined in this era and we really need to know what we're talking about here.
Pretend there was a business opened in 0 B.C. 2008 years and 114 days ago. Let's say that this business is run SO poorly that it loses $1,000,000 a DAY, every day, 365.25 days a year. To lose a TRILLION dollars, it would have to stay in business about another 730 years to do so.
ANOTHER 730 YEARS at -$1,000,000 a day to lose the full $1,000,000,000,000.
Still too abstract? How about this?
If you earned 1 dollar for every SECOND you were alive, you would have:
$1 million after 2 months
$1 billion after 32 years
$1 trillion after 31,688 years. Almost 32 thousand years!
xkcd.com did a rather crass comparison blasting the news organizations about this topic in a comic a while back, I will LINK TO IT here so you can avoid seeing it if you are sensitive.
A million dollars is a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills.A billion dollars is a semi-trailer filled with neatly-stacked hundred dollar bills.
A trillion dollars is one thousand semi-trailers filled with neatly-stacked hundred dollar bills. Mounted on standard flatbed railcars, the train carrying all this money would be about ten miles long.
A trillion dollars is a stack of $1000 bills 67.9 miles high!
"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."-Richard Feynman
When is the federal government going to cut back? Republicans, Democrats, it doesn't seem to matter. All I seem to hear is, "Well, when THEY were in office, spending was this." You know, just because someone else is bad at something doesn't exempt you from being called on it as well. To try to make the point, just because Hitler was really bad doesn't make Stalin a nice guy.
It needs to stop and it is going to take someone, a few someones, to go in there and cut the feds out of areas they are not Constitutionally obligated to participate. The government is there to provide us with law and order. They are there to protect us from those who would do us harm from within or without our borders. They are not there to dictate curriculum to our schools. They are not there to allow or disallow monies to stem cell research. Federal dollars should not be in Stem Cell research, not because of religious reasons, but because it is not the Federal Government's business to spend our money on it! It should be OUR CHOICE! If you want to fund it, FUND IT. IT'S YOUR MONEY!
Dear federal government, Have a military. Have a congress, executive and judiciary. Patrol and protect our borders. Protect our civil liberties. Encourage economic growth through opportunity. Build a strong and prosperous nation. But most of all, protect us from YOU. Our forefathers fought and died to get us from underneath an oppressive regime not to have us placed under one of our own, but to live free.
Here's the rules: Live your life, don't infringe on someone else living theirs. Smile once in a while.
Okay, I threw that last one in there, but the point is simple. Give someone a job because they are qualified, not because of quotas or racial bias. Give to charities with whom you agree and want to support.
Read the Constitution.
Read the Federalist Papers.
Read our Declaration.
I have long ago started carrying around a paper copy of the Constitution and Declaration in my pocket most all the time. I carried them to Iraq twice and Afghanistan once. I carried them to many other foreign countries and I carry them back home. (editor's note: I have since gone digital and if you are having trouble obtaining a copy for yourself, I can either supply you one or point you in the right direction to get one for yourself for free or reduced cost.) I now carry not only the Constitution and Declaration, but also the Federalist Papers, Major Supreme Court Cases, The US Flag Code, The Articles of Confederation, The Emancipation Proclamation, and many more in digital format and I open them to read regularly.
It's late... I'm ranting and rambling again. MAN, this makes me boil over.
Since I'm already in the middle of everything, let me also add (as I have before) that you cannot tax a business. If you try to tax a business, they will respond with cutting the workforce and raising the price of goods. You and I will wind up paying those taxes you wanted levied on the evil corporations.
Okay, good night, and I'm sorry for the atrocious lack of editing in this post.
1 comment:
Well said. Businesses don't pay taxes, people do. Whether they pay in higher prices, fewer jobs or lower wages, people pay, not the business.
Government is there to provide rule or law, access to the court system (for enforcing contracts) national defense, and the protection of civil liberties. It is not there to micromanage the production of vehicles and regulate their gas mileage!
The preamble to the constitution says:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,[1] promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Notice how it says "provide for the common defense" and then follows with "promote the general welfare". There's a reason. The government's purpose is not to provide you with a certain lifestyle funded by other people. Grrr... I obviously need to write my own blog post!
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