A Billion?!
Here is a superb perspective about a Billion...
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... Lets put it into some perspective...
A. A billion seconds ago it was 1978.
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 the US 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, 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
Are all your calculators broken?? Do you use them at all?! :)
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.
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago in the US, and the US was one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
They had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and yes, Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What happened?
Can you spell 'politicians?!'
Indians, PLEASE don't copy the west :)... I do have a feeling they have failed :) :)
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa
17 comments:
250 billion to build a state :o..i wonder if these people realise they can do so much good to the world if they stop wasting food, stop fighting wars, stop using gasoline guzzling SUVs, stop eating non-veg, reduce green house emissions, the list is endless. The politicians will be fools if they copy the west because slowly the west is copying and adapting our traditions. Infact the big companies are looking towards India to cut costs and imrpove operating efficiency,
Eg : When Vodafone took over Hutch, Arun Sarin the CEO of the mobile giant wanted to transfer global practices to the Indian counterpart but slowly they realised that they should be learning from Hutch and not the other way round.
We should be proud of our traditions and should take up the responsibility to awaken not only the citizens of this country but the entire world..in short spread the knowledge as far and as fast as possible :)
jgd
Jai Guru Dev Bawa !
Could you please change the background of your blog....Its very difficult to read black fonts with a black background..
Thanks,
Sreejith
Nice facts put together.... very interesting.... hmmm...
Bawu.. i have also sent a mail to you asking a questino to your yesplus.org address.. please do answer it..!!
-Pradeep
I'm reminded of an article I once read on "Number Illiteracy" ... add more than three or four zeroes to a number, and for most of us the mind boggles, the number is just meaningless (could well be infinity!:).
... Are you advocating Mom staying home too ?? H'mmm! (its a huge topic I think)
About all those taxes...
100 years ago, America was living in the Gilded Age.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age
There was no regulation on the industry. As a result, wealthy men like Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt played rough, becoming more corrupt and wealthier because there was no government oversight and no labor unions.
This changed when FDR tried to level the playing field in the 1930s.
All those taxes are necessary to rebuild highways and ensure funding for regulatory bodies like the Environmental Protection Agency, etc.
font isnt appealing in this post :)
Bau BEWARE!!! :O
You risk becoming "inflammatory" like me, Dinesh Da... LOL!!!! :D
What's this..?? Effect of.. err.. "Good" (Dinesh Da's) Company??? Hahaha....
Really illuminating.... What is that legislator planning to do??? Nuke every building in N'Orleans n build it "from the scratch"(literally..)??
Not advocating mom staying home, but definitely advocating someone staying home to take care of the kids... i deal with kids everyday and believe me, i know! :)
Please use firefox to view this blog, it should look much better and its a far superior browser according to me than most others out there
And PUHlease dont get me started about how taxes are needed... didn't you read? They spends a billion dollars every 8 hours! They are spending $12.5 million every hour on the war in Iraq... like i said dont get me started!
and finally i did change the font of everything ... hope you guys like it now... was late night when i posted this :)
jai Gurudev...
interesting bau...i had a strong(and rather common) urge to go US and all that jazz earlier...now i kinda despise that country...its a shame how they have reduced it from the prosperity they had to a be on d verge of recession..shame
Nice One :) at last two sentences highlighted the real meaning of the post! (though i had to read it twice to actually understand the meaning!)
Taxes i wonder.. How many taxes do an Indian have to pay?
Jai Gurudev!!
You posted an email which has been circulating on the right-wing Republican network in the USA. I found this same article on numerous websites. They are always criticizing Democrats like Mary Landrieu on spending, whether legitimate or illegitimate. Republicans just want to keep their guns and don't care about others.
Republicans didn't want to spend any money in New Orleans because it was a predominantly black and poor city. That is why they are complaining about the 250 Billion dollar tag. Someone even suggested that "God cleaned up New Orleans".
Republicans would rather spend all that money on war and weapons.
Do you really want to get involved in dirty US politics by repeating their comments on your blog?
no idea about US politics, dirty or not... but a billion is a billion regardless of who says it... so to make it clear, i am not interested in either the republicans or the democrats... just posted this here, coz i thought it made interesting reading, and a lot of people in MY country still think that "going to the US" is the height of achievement
End of Discussion!
yeah bau...its sad just HOW many people think going to the US is height of achievement...
oh and i dont get this...y do people post anonymously????got no courage to even stand up to your own thought guys???
yes anupam, sometimes people are too chicken to stand up to their own thoughts... and sometimes they simply may not know how to put their name there :)... if that's the case, simply use your gmail id and you will see blogger automatically use it for you...
of course if you are too chicken to comment using your own name, i would sincerely suggest an Art of Living course to get more strength!:)
One of the taxes reads "Dog License Tax". That's so funny! I can't imagine one needs to pay tax for having a Dog!
Hey, its not so very terrible to leave an anonymous post unless its offensive in some way ... right? I *like* doing this - for more reasons than one ... famous poets and mathematicians (to name just two categories) have written anonymous stuff, sooo .. !:)
Speaking of espousing causes, .. I don't see many people (not Al Gore, not you, not the papers) talking of automobiles as *huge* contributors to the degredation of our environment - which they are !
I've long thought we should ban private cars in India, and have really really excellent public transport - like they do in many towns and cities in Europe (Germany is the exception : tho' they are environmentally super-conscious, their (fatal?) weakness is cars). Instead, in India, we're going in for fancier and fancier cars .. and all the attendant problems, including traffic jams (no matter how wonderful the flyovers) ...
There was an article in yesterday's paper after all .. but with more bad news : apparently, all the new Indian cars spew out *more* CO2 than the old models did! Doesn't seem possible with all the Euro2 norms and the like?
Well, that's what the papers say .. so Delhi's pollution levels are up again and so are other Indian cities ...
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