Okay. I think I’m starting to see a pattern here. Stop me if I get off track. Here’s how I think this has gone: Obama’s inaugurated and his chief of staff Rham Emanuel says to him “Mr. President” he says “You never want to let a good crisis go to waste”, to which the President says “I’m not following you here Rham.”. Emanuel then explains that whenever there’s a crisis the people will rally around the leader, or at least give him the benefit of the doubt regardless of the merits of the plan. The President says “Really?” “You know, I hadn’t thought of that,” “but it might work”. To which Emanuel responded “You fucking - A – right it’ll work.” “Look here I’ve got this bill already drafted.” “Had the unions and Van Jones working on it since the election”. Then he signals an aide who leaves the room momentarily and comes back in with another young man and they deposit an 1100 page document on the table and then withdraw without saying anything. “You’ve been working on this since November?” the President asks. “Damned straight” Emanuel replies. “The way I have it figured we have until the mid terms in 2010 to ram stuff through, and we may as well get started”. “Stimulus package eh?” Obama mutters. “Yes...... this could work”. “What’s in it?” The President asks. “How the hell should I know” Emanuel snorts. “It’s 1100 pages. Who cares? It doesn’t matter”. “There’s lots of good stuff in there for us.... expansion of power.... bypass the Congress.... there’s a shitload of payback for the unions..... ACORN.... and plenty of loose cash for the Congress to spread around to soften the blow in the mid term.” “What we have to do is start screaming “FIRE” just as loud as we can”........ And that’s what they did. They came out and said “You know, we really want to fix the economy, but first we need to do this” and then they started screaming NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. We have to have it NOW. Republicans tried to protest. NOW NOW NOW....... but what’s in it? NOW NOW NOW.... but it costss 750 Billion dollars! NOW NOW NOW.... but where’s all this money going? NOW NOW NOW..... IF WE DON’T PASS THIS NOW EMPLOYMENT WILL GO ABOVE 8%. WE HAVE TO HAVE THIS NOW. And have it they did. The vote was called for less than 24 hours after the bill was made available to members of Congress with ZERO chance that any of them would know what was in it. Then they did the same thing with health care. House passes a bill with a lot of YES votes thinking “There is NO way this gets through the Senate so it doesn’t matter if I vote yes or not”. Another 1100 page monster that no one knew much about. They tried to get it through the Senate before the summer recess. NOW NOW NOW but they just couldn’t do it. And then people got a look at it and the shit hit the fan. We were treated to 4 months of wheeling, dealing and the dirtiest politics this country has seen. We were also treated to the sights and sounds of a genuine American uprising. I’m guessing that a bunch of Senators voted yes thinking “this ain’t EVER mak’in it out of conference so I can vote for it knowing it’ll never pass, and won’t have to make any waves”. But then Nancy Pelosi did something unparalleled. She managed to convince the House of Representatives to swallow the Senate bill whole. Once that was done they could turn to the economy right? Wrong. Truth is they can’t fix the economy and they know it. So NOW they’re saying “Look, we want to focus on fixing the economy and jobs, but we can’t do that until we fix the financial markets”. And wouldn’t you know that they have another 1000 page bill that no one can read or understand all written and ready to go and they have Obama out there on the stump screaming NOW NOW NOW. They’re going to try to keep this up all the way to January when the new Congress is sworn in. Ladies and Gentlemen hang onto your hats. We’re about ready to see how much damage a progressive President and a compliant democrat Congress can do to a great nation in two short years.
But that's just what an average guy thinks.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Insurance Reform
I wanted to put down a few thoughts about health insurance. Since we, as a nation, are on the cusp of doing away with the genre as we know it I figured I may as well.
Health insurance...... well, any insurance I guess.... is just a form of commercialized gambling. You bet the insurance company your premium dollars that you’re going to get sick, or have an accident and they, in turn, call and raise all, or some agreed to portion, of your expenses. It’s as simple as that. But it’s like most gambling...... the odds are stacked in their favor. They have this great big pool of customers and a pile of statistics that they call actuarial tables. They know going in what the odds are, and how likely you or your children are to get sick or to have an accident. And so that’s how it goes: you and I.... we.... the customers get the peace of mind and protection of the insurance companies and they, in their turn, get a profit..... that is..... they take in more than they pay out and pocket the difference. But in order for the system to work, they need to know going in who we are, so they can look us up in the table. The bigger the pool of customers the less important this is, but still. In order to figure out how much to charge for their service they need to know us. What our habits are, what our lifestyle is, family history etc, etc. If we make our living jumping motor cycles they may want to charge us more...... or if we chain smoke. It seems only fair since in those two cases we’re more likely to need medical care.
But in recent years our perception of insurance has changed somehow. Seems to me that before, we used insurance as something to cover expense brought about by illness or accident. Now we use it to cover the cost of normal wear and tear. When I was a kid you went to the doctor if you were sick and didn’t get better, or if you had a maiming accident that required stitches or the setting of a bone. We’ve grown much softer now, and perhaps our lives are better because of it. But still the insurance companies have been able to make a decent living. And that’s as it should be. This is, after all, America. Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave. But lately the insurance companies have come under fire. Well, not lately actually, people have been calling them heartless bastards for as long as I can remember. The complaints seem to be mainly about increasing premiums, cancellation of policies and denial of coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a position supporting health insurance companies in general, but before you send me nasty messages filled with horror stories about relatives let me explain.
As a layman, the health care industry, which the insurance industry is a part, seems horribly complex to me. It’s made up of hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, the government and then us. And everyone in there’s trying to make a buck and that’s okay. I don’t mind. Everyone has the right to make a living and companies have to make a profit in order for that to happen. But we don’t care about that. All we care about is getting the service we pay for and being treated fairly.
Toward increasing premiums: You expect for things to get more expensive over time just due to the increase in the cost of living. You buy a gallon of milk at the grocery and you expect that a year from now it’ll cost more. You buy the exact same car you bought 5 years ago equipped the same way and you know it’s gonna cost more. Health insurance is the same way, only on steroids. You can’t buy the same health care like the gallon of milk or car that you bought 5 years ago. The product improves over time and we have, and want to buy the new and improved version whether or not we recognize that it’s changed. Health care providers (doctors and nurses) are sworn to give us the best care they know how. Sometimes it also turns out to be the most expensive. Used to be there was the x-ray. Then came ultra sound, the CAT scan and the PET scan and now MRI technology. There are constantly improving treatments, and new pharmaceuticals that continually increase the cost of health care beyond cost of living increases. We just have to accept that if the cost of living goes up by 5% over some time period, the cost of health care is likely going to go up more than that.
One of the things that have been proposed as a no cost way to lower insurance premiums is to make it possible for groups of associated people to band together in order to better bargain with insurance companies. Say the National Association of Widget Washers has a meeting, they agree, and it becomes possible for all of them to buy insurance from one company. Nation wide it turns out there are quite a few widget washers, but they generally work in small groups so it’s been hard for them to get good prices on insurance. Now, as a group, they can finally negotiate a good rate on their insurance.
Also discussed as a no cost way to decrease insurance premiums is the removal of the restrictions that shelter insurance companies from interstate competition. This would provide the insurance companies with a larger pool of customers over which to spread expenses, and force them into price competition with hundreds of other companies that might be operating in a more efficient manner. Price competition is where the consumer benefits. We or our representatives would then be free to buy our insurance from a much longer list of suppliers. This would increase the number of products available and make them less expensive.
Another issue needing consideration is how insurance companies negotiate with health care providers. Because larger insurance companies can provide more customers to the big health care providers they can obviously get a better deal. That’s good for some people, but not so good for others. If you work for a large company and have your insurance through Mega Plan it’s good for you, but if you work for a small company and get your coverage through So So Healthcare they aren’t going to be able to get the great deal and you’re going to have to pay more. If you’re self employed and buy insurance form Around the Corner Insurance you have no one to negotiate for you at all. And if you’re uninsured, why, you’re making up the difference for every discount that was given up the tree. In recognition of this some health care providers have taken to giving discounts to the uninsured. Cold comfort I suppose, but at least a recognition that the heaviest burden and highest cost falls on them with the least ability to bear it.
My point here is that we can fix the health insurance and health care industries without huge costs to the average consumer. And, if we...... the people..... choose we can put in place a system to help care for those who can not care for themselves. But we can NOT give away that which belongs to our children and theirs.
Our government was founded and built by people who believed that the happiness of the people could best be provided by limiting the size of government. They believed in self reliance and free markets. Today we have a huge government apparatus which produces nothing and yet employs more people than any private company. The purpose of the government used to be to provide for the common defense, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty.... but it has since turned to the taking of wealth from one group of citizens and giving it to some other group. Our politicians (I will not call them leaders) have, in general, gone mad with power, seeing their jobs as not doing the will of the people, but merely the retention of their jobs. This they have done, insuring their re-election in perpetuity by selectively gifting the wealth they have taken from others on their constituents. And we, for our part have been equally irresponsible in taking this redistributed wealth without mind to where it came from or of our actual need. We have all looked on the federal treasury as if it were a bottomless well of money and favors. This now must stop. Our politicians, on our behalf, have stolen from our fellow citizens and the federal treasury, and with a nod and a wink they have allowed their fellows to likewise steal from us. Until now when we find that our fellows have nothing left to steal. WE have nothing left to steal. But so driven are these men and women that we have set at the controls of the nation, so set in their ways that they now turn their attention to the treasure that should belong to our children and our children's children. This now must stop.
The health care debate is only the head of the nail, the lens that brings the picture into focus. These may be the last months in which we have the chance to choose. Will we allow ourselves to be harnessed and yoked as one huge team of oxen, fed and led to water at the will of the drover, or will we have the liberty that we were promised, and be free as the wild horses on the western plains?
But that’s just what an average guy thinks.
Health insurance...... well, any insurance I guess.... is just a form of commercialized gambling. You bet the insurance company your premium dollars that you’re going to get sick, or have an accident and they, in turn, call and raise all, or some agreed to portion, of your expenses. It’s as simple as that. But it’s like most gambling...... the odds are stacked in their favor. They have this great big pool of customers and a pile of statistics that they call actuarial tables. They know going in what the odds are, and how likely you or your children are to get sick or to have an accident. And so that’s how it goes: you and I.... we.... the customers get the peace of mind and protection of the insurance companies and they, in their turn, get a profit..... that is..... they take in more than they pay out and pocket the difference. But in order for the system to work, they need to know going in who we are, so they can look us up in the table. The bigger the pool of customers the less important this is, but still. In order to figure out how much to charge for their service they need to know us. What our habits are, what our lifestyle is, family history etc, etc. If we make our living jumping motor cycles they may want to charge us more...... or if we chain smoke. It seems only fair since in those two cases we’re more likely to need medical care.
But in recent years our perception of insurance has changed somehow. Seems to me that before, we used insurance as something to cover expense brought about by illness or accident. Now we use it to cover the cost of normal wear and tear. When I was a kid you went to the doctor if you were sick and didn’t get better, or if you had a maiming accident that required stitches or the setting of a bone. We’ve grown much softer now, and perhaps our lives are better because of it. But still the insurance companies have been able to make a decent living. And that’s as it should be. This is, after all, America. Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave. But lately the insurance companies have come under fire. Well, not lately actually, people have been calling them heartless bastards for as long as I can remember. The complaints seem to be mainly about increasing premiums, cancellation of policies and denial of coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a position supporting health insurance companies in general, but before you send me nasty messages filled with horror stories about relatives let me explain.
As a layman, the health care industry, which the insurance industry is a part, seems horribly complex to me. It’s made up of hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, the government and then us. And everyone in there’s trying to make a buck and that’s okay. I don’t mind. Everyone has the right to make a living and companies have to make a profit in order for that to happen. But we don’t care about that. All we care about is getting the service we pay for and being treated fairly.
Toward increasing premiums: You expect for things to get more expensive over time just due to the increase in the cost of living. You buy a gallon of milk at the grocery and you expect that a year from now it’ll cost more. You buy the exact same car you bought 5 years ago equipped the same way and you know it’s gonna cost more. Health insurance is the same way, only on steroids. You can’t buy the same health care like the gallon of milk or car that you bought 5 years ago. The product improves over time and we have, and want to buy the new and improved version whether or not we recognize that it’s changed. Health care providers (doctors and nurses) are sworn to give us the best care they know how. Sometimes it also turns out to be the most expensive. Used to be there was the x-ray. Then came ultra sound, the CAT scan and the PET scan and now MRI technology. There are constantly improving treatments, and new pharmaceuticals that continually increase the cost of health care beyond cost of living increases. We just have to accept that if the cost of living goes up by 5% over some time period, the cost of health care is likely going to go up more than that.
One of the things that have been proposed as a no cost way to lower insurance premiums is to make it possible for groups of associated people to band together in order to better bargain with insurance companies. Say the National Association of Widget Washers has a meeting, they agree, and it becomes possible for all of them to buy insurance from one company. Nation wide it turns out there are quite a few widget washers, but they generally work in small groups so it’s been hard for them to get good prices on insurance. Now, as a group, they can finally negotiate a good rate on their insurance.
Also discussed as a no cost way to decrease insurance premiums is the removal of the restrictions that shelter insurance companies from interstate competition. This would provide the insurance companies with a larger pool of customers over which to spread expenses, and force them into price competition with hundreds of other companies that might be operating in a more efficient manner. Price competition is where the consumer benefits. We or our representatives would then be free to buy our insurance from a much longer list of suppliers. This would increase the number of products available and make them less expensive.
Another issue needing consideration is how insurance companies negotiate with health care providers. Because larger insurance companies can provide more customers to the big health care providers they can obviously get a better deal. That’s good for some people, but not so good for others. If you work for a large company and have your insurance through Mega Plan it’s good for you, but if you work for a small company and get your coverage through So So Healthcare they aren’t going to be able to get the great deal and you’re going to have to pay more. If you’re self employed and buy insurance form Around the Corner Insurance you have no one to negotiate for you at all. And if you’re uninsured, why, you’re making up the difference for every discount that was given up the tree. In recognition of this some health care providers have taken to giving discounts to the uninsured. Cold comfort I suppose, but at least a recognition that the heaviest burden and highest cost falls on them with the least ability to bear it.
My point here is that we can fix the health insurance and health care industries without huge costs to the average consumer. And, if we...... the people..... choose we can put in place a system to help care for those who can not care for themselves. But we can NOT give away that which belongs to our children and theirs.
Our government was founded and built by people who believed that the happiness of the people could best be provided by limiting the size of government. They believed in self reliance and free markets. Today we have a huge government apparatus which produces nothing and yet employs more people than any private company. The purpose of the government used to be to provide for the common defense, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty.... but it has since turned to the taking of wealth from one group of citizens and giving it to some other group. Our politicians (I will not call them leaders) have, in general, gone mad with power, seeing their jobs as not doing the will of the people, but merely the retention of their jobs. This they have done, insuring their re-election in perpetuity by selectively gifting the wealth they have taken from others on their constituents. And we, for our part have been equally irresponsible in taking this redistributed wealth without mind to where it came from or of our actual need. We have all looked on the federal treasury as if it were a bottomless well of money and favors. This now must stop. Our politicians, on our behalf, have stolen from our fellow citizens and the federal treasury, and with a nod and a wink they have allowed their fellows to likewise steal from us. Until now when we find that our fellows have nothing left to steal. WE have nothing left to steal. But so driven are these men and women that we have set at the controls of the nation, so set in their ways that they now turn their attention to the treasure that should belong to our children and our children's children. This now must stop.
The health care debate is only the head of the nail, the lens that brings the picture into focus. These may be the last months in which we have the chance to choose. Will we allow ourselves to be harnessed and yoked as one huge team of oxen, fed and led to water at the will of the drover, or will we have the liberty that we were promised, and be free as the wild horses on the western plains?
But that’s just what an average guy thinks.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The Constitution
So I was thinking about the Constitution as I drifted off to sleep last night. You might think it an odd thing to think of at bed time, but I find it to be comforting and somewhat reassuring. You hear a lot about it these days, about the Constitution.... the “Founding Fathers”. But who were those men, really? Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin and many more. Names that you knew once but have long since forgotten. The men who produced the Constitution in the summer of 1778 differed in many ways, but they had two things in common: they all loved, and had fought for liberty, and they all feared the tyranny of a large and unchecked federal government. They all, to a man, believed that government was the enemy of freedom. But they understood too that some strong, but limited government was necessary to the survival of the nation. The idea was known then that a people are forced to trade some liberty and independence for the services and protections that a central government is uniquely able to provide: the common defense; commercial regulation; things whose necessity is hard to argue. They debated all that summer and were barely able to agree on what we call our Constitution. Fitting I suppose, and prescient somehow that a bare majority of delegates carried the day for the Federalists.
Since the beginning of the last century there have been efforts to progress beyond the Constitution, to build the government bigger, and away from the support provided by the foundation. The government began to be seen by many to be the solution to all of the problems of mankind. The economic cycles of feast and famine seemed to be within the control of government. This was a time of great social change around the world and many began to see value in a system where a benevolent, but all powerful government would direct resources and distribute the fruits of society’s labors equally amongst the citizens, providing a comfortable lifetime of shelter from the harsh reality of life on Earth. But this was not the intent of our founders. They had too much experience with a government that decided who was allowed to succeed and how high a station they could reach. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it,”. These are beautiful words, and they were codified in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, were added to specify some of those rights, and Article V provides a means to change the Constitution if desired. The method is clear and straight forward, but it’s difficult, amendments requiring the ratification by no fewer than three fourths of the state legislatures. That’s why it happens so infrequently. It’s hard. The majority of the people really have to want it.
Now what’s taking place is what I’ll call Constitutional creep. That is the making of laws that are farther and farther away from the foundational support of the Constitution. Laws get passed, signed into law and if no one is materially damaged or can afford to hire a team of lawyers the Supreme Court isn’t able to rule on the actual constitutionality of the legislation, and even in instances were cases do reach the Court, the Commerce Clause has been used frequently in recent years to allow all types of questionable legislation to stand. And so what was a strong foundation for a limited government has been covered and surrounded by un, or barely supported structure.
From time to time when you read of Supreme Court decisions you hear people mention “the intention of the Founders”. Justices know the Constitution, and parse the journals and correspondence of the principles, and they study past case law to tap the wisdom and thinking of great Americans passed to try and know what we should now do. One thing is clear. The men who debated, wrote, and finally ratified the Constitution feared an over powerful federal government. Can it be that it has now taken 210 years for their fears to be realized?
And that’s what an average guy thinks.
Since the beginning of the last century there have been efforts to progress beyond the Constitution, to build the government bigger, and away from the support provided by the foundation. The government began to be seen by many to be the solution to all of the problems of mankind. The economic cycles of feast and famine seemed to be within the control of government. This was a time of great social change around the world and many began to see value in a system where a benevolent, but all powerful government would direct resources and distribute the fruits of society’s labors equally amongst the citizens, providing a comfortable lifetime of shelter from the harsh reality of life on Earth. But this was not the intent of our founders. They had too much experience with a government that decided who was allowed to succeed and how high a station they could reach. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it,”. These are beautiful words, and they were codified in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, were added to specify some of those rights, and Article V provides a means to change the Constitution if desired. The method is clear and straight forward, but it’s difficult, amendments requiring the ratification by no fewer than three fourths of the state legislatures. That’s why it happens so infrequently. It’s hard. The majority of the people really have to want it.
Now what’s taking place is what I’ll call Constitutional creep. That is the making of laws that are farther and farther away from the foundational support of the Constitution. Laws get passed, signed into law and if no one is materially damaged or can afford to hire a team of lawyers the Supreme Court isn’t able to rule on the actual constitutionality of the legislation, and even in instances were cases do reach the Court, the Commerce Clause has been used frequently in recent years to allow all types of questionable legislation to stand. And so what was a strong foundation for a limited government has been covered and surrounded by un, or barely supported structure.
From time to time when you read of Supreme Court decisions you hear people mention “the intention of the Founders”. Justices know the Constitution, and parse the journals and correspondence of the principles, and they study past case law to tap the wisdom and thinking of great Americans passed to try and know what we should now do. One thing is clear. The men who debated, wrote, and finally ratified the Constitution feared an over powerful federal government. Can it be that it has now taken 210 years for their fears to be realized?
And that’s what an average guy thinks.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
One Trillion
I have some problems with the health care reform legislation that is currently being debated in the Senate. The fact that it’s meant to move the nation closer to Socialism is primary I suppose, and that it is intentionally over 2000 pages in length in order to keep people from being able to know and understand what’s in it. I don’t like the fact that it was designed to tear down and completely restructure a system that, while flawed and in need of reform, at least fits the national culture. I don’t like the fact that the new system is now being put together as if by a committee of tailors, each with a different sense of style and ideas about what the garment should look like. There is no pattern or plan, and what should be undertaken with all caution and an eye on the future is being rushed in order to take advantage of the political moment. But as much as all my other problems, I am troubled at the cost: over one Trillion dollars. And that’s a conservative estimate that relies on a whole slough of assumptions all converging to the same point at the same time. If past experience with Medicare is any indication, the costs could be off by as much as a factor of ten. But however educated that guess, it’s still just a guess. What is not a guess is the one Trillion dollar number now in front of us. People have grown used to hearing the numbers: Millions (Lottery); Billions (Oprah, Gates, Buffett), but the only place you hear the term Trillions of dollars is when you talk about the US economy. I think people would be well served it they knew just how big a number one Trillion is. So to that end I have compiled a list of references just to put a Trillion in context.
We begin with a simple unit of measure that everyone can appreciate: the Dollar bill. You’ve seen it before. It has George Washington on the obverse (face side) and a big ONE, the pyramid and the eagle on the reverse (other side). It’s 6 inches long, 2-1/2 inches wide, and 43/10,000 of an inch thick.
One Trillion of anything is one million piles of one million each.
One Million one dollar bills weigh 2,202 pounds. One Trillion Dollars collected all together would weigh over two Billion pounds and take a fleet of 55,065 semi tractor trailers to haul it.
Laid end to end One Trillion Dollars would stretch 94,696,969 miles. This is a distance three million miles farther away than the sun. So far that it would take light 8-1/2 minutes to make the trip.
That distance 94,696,969 miles would take you from the Earth to the moon and back 198 times. You could travel around the Earth 3,809 times.
If you were to neatly stack One Trillion new bills, it would make a stack 67,866 miles high. Carefully lie it down and it would wrap the Earth 8-1/2 times.
If you wanted to cover some of the Earth, you certainly could. One Trillion Dollars would cover a square area 61 miles by 61 miles. 3,736 square miles.
You would have to flood a regulation NFL football field (excluding end zones) to a depth of 30 feet and 8 inches to accumulate One Trillion Drops.
And finally:
If one day you turned your kitchen faucet on full flow and then got distracted........ you could leave the house, go to college, complete your degree, date, marry, start a family, get divorced, date, re-marry, start another family, and 9-1/2 years later when you went back to your house, you would be there in plenty of time to shut off the water before One Trillion drops had gone down the drain.
I’ve composed this blog to try and illustrate the magnitude of one small piece (one trillion) of what I consider to be the main problem that our nation faces today, and that is runaway entitlement spending. Our legislators, for as long as I can remember, have pandered, wheeled and dealt, and greased the ways for their own political ambitions without regard for the future. Sometimes the spending has been done with the best of intentions, but still with no regard for the true affordability of the “project”. And now my son and daughter along with you and I, and your sons and daughters, as citizens, owe over $39,000 to the national debt. In a few years when they begin their working lives that number will suddenly jump to the $111,000 the each tax “payer” now owes. It saddens me to know that in 5 years no matter what we do this number will be much higher.
We are living in a remarkable time. Depending on your point of view, it may be either transformative or catastrophic. Whatever your politics I beg of you to please pay attention to the numbers, to know just how astronomical they are. When you hear that the Senate has a One Trillion Dollar bill under consideration or that they plan to extend the national debt ceiling by One Trillion Eight Hundred Billion Dollars (increasing our credit limit) I beg of you to think of the numbers and ask yourself “can we afford this?” Ask yourself: “do I have the right to obligate my children and their children, and theirs to a lifetime of debt repayment?”.
And that’s what an average guy thinks.
We begin with a simple unit of measure that everyone can appreciate: the Dollar bill. You’ve seen it before. It has George Washington on the obverse (face side) and a big ONE, the pyramid and the eagle on the reverse (other side). It’s 6 inches long, 2-1/2 inches wide, and 43/10,000 of an inch thick.
One Trillion of anything is one million piles of one million each.
One Million one dollar bills weigh 2,202 pounds. One Trillion Dollars collected all together would weigh over two Billion pounds and take a fleet of 55,065 semi tractor trailers to haul it.
Laid end to end One Trillion Dollars would stretch 94,696,969 miles. This is a distance three million miles farther away than the sun. So far that it would take light 8-1/2 minutes to make the trip.
That distance 94,696,969 miles would take you from the Earth to the moon and back 198 times. You could travel around the Earth 3,809 times.
If you were to neatly stack One Trillion new bills, it would make a stack 67,866 miles high. Carefully lie it down and it would wrap the Earth 8-1/2 times.
If you wanted to cover some of the Earth, you certainly could. One Trillion Dollars would cover a square area 61 miles by 61 miles. 3,736 square miles.
You would have to flood a regulation NFL football field (excluding end zones) to a depth of 30 feet and 8 inches to accumulate One Trillion Drops.
And finally:
If one day you turned your kitchen faucet on full flow and then got distracted........ you could leave the house, go to college, complete your degree, date, marry, start a family, get divorced, date, re-marry, start another family, and 9-1/2 years later when you went back to your house, you would be there in plenty of time to shut off the water before One Trillion drops had gone down the drain.
I’ve composed this blog to try and illustrate the magnitude of one small piece (one trillion) of what I consider to be the main problem that our nation faces today, and that is runaway entitlement spending. Our legislators, for as long as I can remember, have pandered, wheeled and dealt, and greased the ways for their own political ambitions without regard for the future. Sometimes the spending has been done with the best of intentions, but still with no regard for the true affordability of the “project”. And now my son and daughter along with you and I, and your sons and daughters, as citizens, owe over $39,000 to the national debt. In a few years when they begin their working lives that number will suddenly jump to the $111,000 the each tax “payer” now owes. It saddens me to know that in 5 years no matter what we do this number will be much higher.
We are living in a remarkable time. Depending on your point of view, it may be either transformative or catastrophic. Whatever your politics I beg of you to please pay attention to the numbers, to know just how astronomical they are. When you hear that the Senate has a One Trillion Dollar bill under consideration or that they plan to extend the national debt ceiling by One Trillion Eight Hundred Billion Dollars (increasing our credit limit) I beg of you to think of the numbers and ask yourself “can we afford this?” Ask yourself: “do I have the right to obligate my children and their children, and theirs to a lifetime of debt repayment?”.
And that’s what an average guy thinks.
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