I'm bad at math... but I was reading an article today about campaign fundraising - the three remaining candidates, not counting anyone who doesn't have a shot in hell, Obama, Clinton and McCain have raised a total of $508 million dollars. That to me is a number so far beyond what I understand it's not even funny. (Once on Penn and Teller's show Bullshit, they were discussing numbers and how they're *AHEM* bullshit. Penn said that at a certain point numbers so big just start being classified as shitload, assload, etc, etc... Hilarity ensued.) Anyway (focus, Cassie, focus), I thought to myself it's pathetic that without even knowing (or understanding) the actual numbers, if Americans were to donate that to the National Debt, rather than candidates (and make the candidates figure out a cheaper way to convince us... I'm thinking candy bribes. Rolos are pretty cheap.) it would not even be a drop in the bucket. I was really curious about what it actually would do. So I did a tiny bit of research - Google is a miracle machine - and found the Debt Calculator. This one is even more of a nightmare, when you can watch the debt adding on. So anyway - about $9 trillion. I think the next bigger step is quadtrillion? (A shitty assload.) Something like that. Anyway - if Americans had contributed $508 million dollars to pay toward that deficit, it would only decrease .005%. I don't really know how to feel about it, because the numbers feel so theoretical and bullshit-y. And I don't think there's one person or government decision to blame. I could be wrong here... and there are people who are much smarter reading this blog than the one writing. So feel free, point out the one person, or the one decision, or just check my math. I look forward to reading your input.
I don't have a conclusion here for you. Come up with your own, I've got to go balance my checkbook.
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5 comments:
THat's only one campaign, so perhaps you're onto something. Maybe if all those perks and swag bags along with funds donated to campaigns were donated to some sort of money market account (you get the idea) we could reduce the debt by a significant amount. It also makes me wonder i all of our ourtsourcing kind of kicks us in the rear since it means we'e paying people in other countries instead of stimulating our own economy.
I like where you're going with this, Tara. Unfortunately, I don't know if we can convince the candidates to go for it. Harder still, can we get all Americans to get behind one candy? I mean, some people feel like a nut and some don't.
I see your point with the outsourcing too, but I think that is a growing pain we're gonna have to go through one way or the other....there is really no room for companies that don't get the best labor they can for as cheap as they can and I think it's good - for the world, even if it's not the best for us. So, I don't think we can shy away from it. That being said I don't know how but we've got to find some other source to stimulate our economy, I think. Man, I wish I were smarter! Think of how rich I would be if I had the solution instead of just problems.
I think Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey should be our country's financial gurus...like instead of Ben Bernanke (who I have nothing against), one of them should be chairperson of the Federal Reserve. I think it would be interesting how a country founded on perpetual debt would change when someone was in charge who doesn't believe in having debt (except for maybe a mortgage)....
On a tangent...
I think we should keep jobs for American companies in America...specifically, *my* company, since it's hard enough to hear "Fred" much less understand his accent. I'm no xenophobe, but I think unemployment wouldn't be so high (ok not really high, but elevated) if greedy corporate execs stoppped sending Everyman's job to an anonymous warm body oversees who's willing to work for pennies on the dollar with none of the regulations that came into being from such disasters as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire....
That tax rebate I'm getting from the government? I'm not going to be a good patriot and stimulate our economy; I'm going to pay off some debt and stimulate MY economy. You want me to spend money in the marketplace? Cap all my interest rates (APRs and APYs) at 15% and it's all yours!
my $0.02...sorry for the long reply
I love Rolos. I had some recently for the first time in years, and they were so delicious.
$508 million is an assload of money. But, to put it in perspective, Americans spend $15 BILLION a year on dog food. Of course, that's still a fraction of $9 TRILLION. But if we spent $9 trillion on dog food, it would mean there were way too many dogs on Earth, and they would devour us all, setting up their own human-free dogtopia.
Dogtopia. Great, now I'm going to have nightmares tonight. Thanks a lot, Cassie.
I like Kitkats - I don't know what it is about them but I like to take a bite and then divide the layers in my mouth - like peeling sunflower seeds - but the chocolate layers and the crunchy little cookie parts. mmmm-mmmm good.
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