Loose Change
November 24th, 2008 - 9:55 am
Wow:
The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.
I’m no mathematician or an economist, but that, uh, seems like a lot of money.
So where do we taxpayers go to get bailed out of the bailout?
Just to give a little perspective:
One million dollars = stack of $1000 bills four inches high.
One billion dollars = stack of $1000 bills as tall as a 40-story building.
One trillion dollars = stack of $1000 bills just under 76 miles high.
rbj: Canada.
Time to invade Mexico. With all the cross-border incursions by their “army”, we’ve certainly got Casus Belli. They’ve got a ton of oil and other under-utilized resources. Run it as an “imperial” colony for a couple of decades, then start carving it up and granting Statehood. Nations expand or decline, and we’ve been at 50 States for more than 50 years.
Eric –
That’s what people said about Texas way back when. And what’d it get us? Buncha Texans runnin’ around buying up all the best parts of Colorado.
No thanks!
When the “U.S. stole the southwest from Mexico” silliness comes up I like to ask a question. I enjoyed reading up on the history and it is rich, I’ll leave that part there. What I ask is “if you were a Mexican born in northern Mexico would you wish historically that the U.S. border were farther north, or that the ‘injustice’ had swept several latitudes south of your hometown oh so long before you were born?” It invites an enjoyable pause and sometimes a sheepish grin even in liberals.
Having said that I insist it in no way implies that I wish for any further entanglement with that mess below the Rio Grande.
Making believe you have money because you wish it were so only leads amplifies the dire situation.
Very scared.