Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Something to Ponder????

Warning - not running related

I generally try not to post on politics or religion and this one is really on neither but some might think it is criticism of the current President since I am questioning his stimulus package at least indirectly. Now truth be told, I was criticizing the past President for the same thing. Moving onto my soapbox, we should spend what we collect in taxes, fees, services, etc... and we should not print money we can't repay in my lifetime. Ok, I am now moving back off of my soap box.

Anyway, what led to this post was our church had the annual stewardship speech (what are you donating next year) last Sunday, except they invited a guest speaker. Turns out he is local high school teacher who teaches economics and he gave a great example during his speech that helped me understand our current deficit spending in a way that really made sense (minor side track - I should clarify that he did not at any point criticize the current administration nor make any political comments, his talk was on stewardship). Back to this post, as an Electrical Engineer, math has always been something I have been fairly good at but when it comes to millions, billions, trillions I tend to have visualization issues. His example was to think of the money as time.
  • 1 Million Seconds = 278 hrs = 11.6 days
  • 1 Billion Seconds = 277, 778 hrs = 11,574 days = 31.7 years
  • 1 Trillion Seconds = 277, 777, 778 hrs = 11,574,000 days = 31,709.8 years
So to complete the visualization, he said here is the way to look at the spending. If it really did equal time and you would go backwards in time based on the amount of time you spent.
  • 1 Million Seconds takes us back to November, 5 2009
  • 1 Billion Seconds takes us back to March 10, 1978
  • 1 Trillion Seconds takes us back to 29,700 BC (no clue what month)
I thought it was a great example that helped me understand the bizarre spending in Washington over the last 12+ years. So when they talk about a budget deficit of a Trillion+ dollars it has a whole new perspective to me. I should also add that he did cover a few more topics concerning stewardship and he did provide an interesting perspective on that as well.

2 comments:

wildknits said...

Interesting way to bring the numbers into perspective!

I continue to find it interesting how so many people do not connect government money with "our money" ie: taxes. That said - I am willing to pay for the things I believe in because, in the end, we pay for it anyway.... better to be proactive ;->

On top of stewardship sunday is the onslaught of pleas from every non-profit that has ever gotten a hold of my name.

Thanks for the post... truly something to ponder.

Londell said...

Nice perspective. I agree with Lisa that there us much spending I prefer not to be part of and much I support. What I read recently was the millions spent each week on the two wars. I wonder why but as I do not know all the details but to accept it. Then my friend who on purpose avoids applying for certain jobs he could get but are equal to or sllghtly less than his unemployment. He has insurance from his wife so no need there. So he milks the system. So when I think of the trillion I think it is many people who abuse and milk the system or egos that cause it and I have no way to do anything about it so I often repeat the serenity prayer... But it is clear to me that someday all this will be a real problem that we can not even print our way out of in the future.

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