Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005 Status: offline
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I was told years ago that the average person does not really grasp the concept of a million. Let's take the case of a million dollars. It is easy to see that it take a million one dollar bills to make a million dollars. But let's take the case of hundred dollars bills, something actually easier to actually grasp. Ten 100s are a thousand. A hundred 100s are ten thousand. A thousand 100s are only a hundred thousand. Ten thousand 100s are a million. Now when we get into billions and lately trillions, do you really concieve just how much that money really is ? I think that important for a sound discussion on the problems of this country. What is the population of this country, is it 300,000,000 or is it 300,000,000,000 ? It makes a difference. If 300 million, if everyone gave a dollar to the debt, it is not a drop in the bucket. If 300 billion it is. If it is 300 billion, ten bucks each could lop off 3 trillion, about one forth of the entire debt. Any of us who do mental math generally disregard exponents to manipulate the figures. They are added back in the end. This makes for another possibility of error. Now just imagine how many 100s it would take to pay off the national debt. It stands at near 13 trillion. Do some mental math and figure it out, see what you come up with. Of course there is the tertiary issue of whether we have gotten 13 trillion in services. You might think so, but with all these rich people around I don't. Money is not the only issue. Someone is robbed or something every how many seconds ? Well when they report statistics in that way, everyone might hide in their house or buy a gun or whatever, but really there are many other ways to meet one's downfall or even demise. Even though the AMA themselves estimate the a quarter million people are killed in hospitals every year. But really it is a drop in the bucket. It's not just the mental math, it is our conception of these large numbers that clouds many issues. All of the medically uninsured, well everyone on welfare gets medical. Prisoners get free eye care. Politicians get................... So when I propose that they get stuck with the systems put in place for the commoner, I am not contending that we would save a great deal of money. But I do believe it will be better spent. T
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