Just how much is a billion???

[Madison]

I got this email and thought the numbers were interesting, so I'm passing it along:

Here's some thought provoking information -

The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending your tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

a.. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

b.. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

c.. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

d.. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

e.. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes,
at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans - It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.
............

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking
the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans.

Interesting number, what does it mean?

Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans
(every man, woman, child), you each get $516, 528.

Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans,
your home gets $1, 329,787

Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C. !!!...........................Are all your calculators broken????

Don't blame me if any of the numbers are off, I didn't bother to double check them. Just thought it might make interesting conversation.

[Omaha Red Sox]

I'm moving to the gulf and praying for rain...

[DK]

You forgot that $249 billion automatically goes to more beads for Mardi Gras.

[pokerplaya]

Interesting read...

[Zito is God]

[Art Vandelay]

I realize that this wasn't meant to be taken literally, but the author of this thing really ignores a lart portion of where that money will go. It's not as if it will all be spent to rebuild homes. Infrastructure needs rebuilding as well. I forget what the exact number is, but I know that building roads is expensive as hell...and there has to be a few thousand miles of road that needs to be rebuilt down there...among other things. Anyway, is the $250 billion in aid too high? Probably. Will lots of it get wasted, mis-used, or "lost"? Definitely. But the given argument is a poor one for why this shouldn't take place.

[OhMrScottyTrav06]

a.. A billion seconds ago it was 1959. WRONG: it was July of 1974

b.. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

c.. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

d.. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

e.. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes,
at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans - It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.
............

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking
the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans.

Interesting number, what does it mean?

Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans
(every man, woman, child), you each get $516, 528.

Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans,
your home gets $1, 329,787

Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C. !!!...........................Are all your calculators broken????

Just thought I'd make a correction on that error.

[dannyolbb]

I wonder how much it costs to dredge a major city and make it safe for human inhabitance...

Obviously, we're not spending 516 grand on each person over there. It costs a fortune to reconstitute a major American city.

Of course, it costs an even larger fortune to reconstitute a non-American country, so maybe we shouldn't complain.

I don't know. I shouldn't get worked up about this sort of thing, but it's just such blatent misinformation. It implies that the people living in New Orleans are just soaking up the money when that clearly isn't true.

[CubsFan7724]

I thought this was going to go the Iraq War angle. I'm guessing theres two versions to this email

[beerman648]

. Granted that it is all not meant to rebuild a simple house for all of the families there, but that is still a helluva price.

How about OhMrScottyTrav06 checking the true time of a billion seconds. Props to him I would have avoided it altogether and say it was right. So I checked it all and all and he is right with 1 billion seconds being 31.7 years ago.