Saturday, February 09, 2008
Selfishness Pays ... with interest [improved & super-updated]
"We deserve ours ... and all you other people can get in line behind us and wait till we're done."
The US is the greatest country on earth, right? The rest of the world is jealous, and that's why they hate Americans. Americans enjoy the highest standard of living and are the wealthiest people in the world, right?
Wrong ... in fact, the US isn't even close.
Standard of Living
1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Canada
4. Belgium
5. Australia
6. United States
7. Iceland
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Finland
-source
Snoozing in The American Dream Land
-U.S. students scored lower on science/literacy than their peers in 16 of the other 29 OECD jurisdictions and 6 of the 27 non-OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] jurisdictions - source
-The US ranks #21 in Litericy (behind Armenia and Barbados)
-The US is the world's largest debtor nation.
"In recent years, the US trade deficit has reached roughly 6% of the GDP, a level former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker calls unsustainable." -wiki
-Every US citizen owes the federal government $$30,378.80 (babies and children are citizens, so figure about $79,000 per taxpayer). "Poor" countries like China and India are lending money to the US to service its debt)
(Update: As of August 5, 2011 everybody you know owes Uncle Sam $46,838.47)
Check out the National Debt Clock here.
-The second most expensive item in the US budget (after Defense spending) is paying interest on the national debt ... more than $1 billion per day in 2006. (NASA's annual budget is just $15 billion ... that's just two weeks of interest)
-Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy -more energy info here
-The US ranks #45 in both Life Expectancy and Suicide Rates
---
I'm not crossing the line into politics, but look at today's headlines.
I hope it's not s sign of things to come that OPEC and other global oil suppliers, worried about the shrinking value of the dollar, might start asking to be paid in currencies other than dollars. Or that Great Britain is mussing with the idea of "constructive accommodation" with Islamic Shariah law.
Meanwhile Congress borrows another $168 billion to stimulate the world's greatest consumers into spending themselves even further into debt.
Don't get me wrong: Americans enjoy tremendous political freedom and have greater economic opportunity than any country in the world. Still I wonder if the US is the greatest country on earth ... or maybe just the most selfish.
I guess we'll find out when the bills come due.
The US is the greatest country on earth, right? The rest of the world is jealous, and that's why they hate Americans. Americans enjoy the highest standard of living and are the wealthiest people in the world, right?
Wrong ... in fact, the US isn't even close.
Standard of Living
1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Canada
4. Belgium
5. Australia
6. United States
7. Iceland
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Finland
-source
Snoozing in The American Dream Land
-U.S. students scored lower on science/literacy than their peers in 16 of the other 29 OECD jurisdictions and 6 of the 27 non-OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] jurisdictions - source
-The US ranks #21 in Litericy (behind Armenia and Barbados)
-The US is the world's largest debtor nation.
"In recent years, the US trade deficit has reached roughly 6% of the GDP, a level former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker calls unsustainable." -wiki
-Every US citizen owes the federal government $$30,378.80 (babies and children are citizens, so figure about $79,000 per taxpayer). "Poor" countries like China and India are lending money to the US to service its debt)
(Update: As of August 5, 2011 everybody you know owes Uncle Sam $46,838.47)
Check out the National Debt Clock here.
-The second most expensive item in the US budget (after Defense spending) is paying interest on the national debt ... more than $1 billion per day in 2006. (NASA's annual budget is just $15 billion ... that's just two weeks of interest)
-Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy -more energy info here
-The US ranks #45 in both Life Expectancy and Suicide Rates
---
I'm not crossing the line into politics, but look at today's headlines.
I hope it's not s sign of things to come that OPEC and other global oil suppliers, worried about the shrinking value of the dollar, might start asking to be paid in currencies other than dollars. Or that Great Britain is mussing with the idea of "constructive accommodation" with Islamic Shariah law.
Meanwhile Congress borrows another $168 billion to stimulate the world's greatest consumers into spending themselves even further into debt.
Don't get me wrong: Americans enjoy tremendous political freedom and have greater economic opportunity than any country in the world. Still I wonder if the US is the greatest country on earth ... or maybe just the most selfish.
I guess we'll find out when the bills come due.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Bail Me Out, I'm Sinking!
Digging the Hole Deeper
But bilge pumps? Wouldn't you think some kind of pump that's designed to keep your boat afloat in case it starts sinking would make the list? Shouldn't a bilge pump be life-saving priority numero uno?
Nope, and for a very simple and revealing reason:
"There is no more efficient bailing device than a scared sailor with a bucket."
-- -- --
America's financial market is in danger of sinking. The credit crisis is so severe that the proposed "bail-out" is considered an emergency action ... not to save the big shots on Wall Street, but the little guy on Main Street.
Here's the catch: by heaping another $700 billion burden on top of the budget, the national debt will approach $11 trillion (that's eleven thousand billions) to be repaid by taxpayers. So where is this extry $700 billion in bail-outs gonna come from?
Our government will borrow the money it needs to save our finance and credit markets from other countries. So our $11 trillion debt figure doesn't include interest. You know, like you pay on your charge cards every month for carrying an outstanding balance after buying all the things we're entitled to as Americans.
$11 trillion dollars of debt is outstanding indeed. So let's not call it a "bail out" or even a "rescue."
"Digging the debt hole deeper" better describes what happens when countries, like people, live beyond their means by spending money they don't have and keep borrowing on credit to spend even more.
Rather than stop spending, and start bailing.
-- -- --
You can calculate the share to be plucked from your purse or wallet by dividing 11 trillion dollars by about 60 million people ... that's a rough estimate of the number of citizens actually paying taxes in the US.
But you might wanna sit down first.
