So what exactly is the $16 Billion Question? Lets start with the number of zero's in 16 Billion. There are a few people in the world who do not have to look that up. Sadly I am not one of them. That knowledge belongs to the Gates, Buffets, DeVoss's, Davidsons, and Waltons of America. I will not apologize to the billionaires I left out because, lets face it, they are not likely to read this!
For the rest of us (including our Senators and Congressmen which I will make clearer in a few paragraphs), a billion dollars is a one followed by nine zeros (eleven if you count the pennies, but if you have a billion dollars you probably round off to the nearest dollar, or the nearest 100,000 lets face it), or more precisely 1,000,000,000.00. so $16 billion is $16,000,000,000.00
An article by Justin Fox in last weeks Time Magazine made me furious. The Obama Administration was answering the charges about whether or not the stimulus package was working. Their defense was that 30,000 jobs were directly or indirectly produced by "the first $16 billion" (God help us if there is a second $16 billion, bear with me and you will understand). House Minority Leader John Boehner said that such exulting was "beyond the pale" since "3 million private-sector jobs have been lost since it became law". Even he did not get the $16 billion question!
Since I am neither a billionaire or a math whiz I had to resort to a calculator to find the amount we spent per job created. Since my calculator can not handle numbers in the billions (without using scientific notation), I had to drop a few zeros. Take four zeros off of 16 billion and you get 1,600,000 (written out 1600000 0000 cancel the four zeros on 33,000 and you get 3.3). So divide 1.6 Million by 3.3 (luckily that number does make sense to me) and you get 484,848.
Pulling it all together $16 Billion divided by 30,000 jobs created means each job cost the American Taxpayer (that is us folks) Almost HALF a MILLION DOLLARS per job! ( I know I rounded up but if you made $484,848.48 you would tell everyone you made half a million) Feel free to check my math. I had to do it 3X because I could not believe the numbers myself. I assumed that I missed a zero somewhere and it actually only cost $48,884.00 per job created. NOPE!
Those better be some great F in jobs that were created! I am betting the jobs were most likely in the $48,000.00 a year range. Give my friend Doug Savage ( Bearing Service Inc) a fraction of that money and he would create meaningful jobs. Give Lee Iacocca a fraction of that money and we could buy Chrysler back from the French-and rebuild it to an American Icon! Give John Rakolta (Walbridge Aldinger) a fraction of that money and watch how many good paying construction jobs are created. The list of course is endless but the point is made. The private sector creates good jobs for far less money
So we finally get to the $16 Billion Question (I actually have a lot more than one question, but let's start with this one!)
Where did the Half a Million Dollars Go?
I am not an economist, but wouldn't it have been smarter to find 30,000 unemployed people and give each of them a $150,000.00 to spend? I know the answer our politicians are going to give us is a lot of the 16 Billion went to the stimulus checks they sent out, but again, if it cost us Almost HALF a MILLION DOLLARS per job was that such a smart idea?
My guess is a considerable amount of the "stimulus money" went to stimulate the friends and relatives of the Congress and Senate. I know that sounds cynical, but I am from the Detroit area where hiring idiot relatives (without even a high school diploma) and paying them outrageous sums of money to do do Jack-you- know-what (or to not even show up) was taken to an art form by our previous Mayor the Dishonorable Kwame Kilpatrick.
Lets face it, he must have learned that from his mom Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) Congresswoman representing Michigan's 13th District and his dad Bernard Kilpatrick . For more info on the dirty dealings of the Kilpatrick Family check out the blog of Skeptical Brotha, but do it when you have time (their criminal misconduct can fill a book just on the surface). http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/category/carolyn-cheeks-kilpatrick/ I am guessing she and a lot of other Senators and Congress persons benefited directly or indirectly from the "stimulus money".
Unfortunately the $16 Billion Question will never be answered, but that does not mean we shouldn't ask them! I am forwarding this page to my elected officials. Whether you choose to do so is, of course, entirely up to you. I am also sending a copy of this to everyone in my address book and asking them to do the same. This is not a Republican or Democratic problem, This is an American Problem! Remember the comment about the "first $16 Billion" implying a "second $16 Billion" can not be far off. We can not let this go on. Our fore fathers started a revolution over much smaller numbers (even adjusted for inflation) than these.
My feelings are a wholesale replacement of all our elected officials is needed. The approval ratings of congress as a whole is less than 20% yet incumbents keep getting elected. The feeling seems to be "Government Sucks but our guy really looks out for us". NO NO NO. They all are guilty of looking after themselves. Tell me another profession where you can put in as little as 6 years and walk away with a pension equaling 100% of your salary, for life! Plus the best medical benefits in the country with zero copay, zero deductible and no premiums for life as well. You can't because there are none! Realize folks, they voted this benefit package for themselves. We did not get to vote on whether this was fair. If a publicly traded company offered their employees such a deal, there would be a shareholder revolt and every executive of the company would be fired for voting for such a ridiculous compensation package. why should we tolerate this from our elected officials.
There will be more on this subject I assure you but for now I will finish with this. If you agree with all or part of this, send a copy (or just the stuff you agree with) to your elected officials. I am including a link where you can find out how to contact them. Encourage as many of your friends to do the same thing. We need a government who looks after us for a change. One which severely limits the lobbying of special interest groups. One which quickly deals with the problems our country is facing. One which allows us, their employers, to decide on their compensation and benefits, or perhaps limits itself to the average of all the salary and benefits packages in the country. The "Compensation Czar" was good enough for the companies who took a tax payer bailout, why should the tax supported government officials be treated better?
As usual just my opinions. I hope you share them, and will share them with as many people as possible.
Elected officials contact information can be found at: http://conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm
and you don't have to be a conservative to use the info on their site!
I am not an economist, but wouldn't it have been smarter to find 30,000 unemployed people and give each of them a $150,000.00 to spend? I know the answer our politicians are going to give us is a lot of the 16 Billion went to the stimulus checks they sent out, but again, if it cost us Almost HALF a MILLION DOLLARS per job was that such a smart idea?
My guess is a considerable amount of the "stimulus money" went to stimulate the friends and relatives of the Congress and Senate. I know that sounds cynical, but I am from the Detroit area where hiring idiot relatives (without even a high school diploma) and paying them outrageous sums of money to do do Jack-you- know-what (or to not even show up) was taken to an art form by our previous Mayor the Dishonorable Kwame Kilpatrick.
Lets face it, he must have learned that from his mom Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) Congresswoman representing Michigan's 13th District and his dad Bernard Kilpatrick . For more info on the dirty dealings of the Kilpatrick Family check out the blog of Skeptical Brotha, but do it when you have time (their criminal misconduct can fill a book just on the surface). http://skepticalbrotha.wordpress.com/category/carolyn-cheeks-kilpatrick/ I am guessing she and a lot of other Senators and Congress persons benefited directly or indirectly from the "stimulus money".
Unfortunately the $16 Billion Question will never be answered, but that does not mean we shouldn't ask them! I am forwarding this page to my elected officials. Whether you choose to do so is, of course, entirely up to you. I am also sending a copy of this to everyone in my address book and asking them to do the same. This is not a Republican or Democratic problem, This is an American Problem! Remember the comment about the "first $16 Billion" implying a "second $16 Billion" can not be far off. We can not let this go on. Our fore fathers started a revolution over much smaller numbers (even adjusted for inflation) than these.
My feelings are a wholesale replacement of all our elected officials is needed. The approval ratings of congress as a whole is less than 20% yet incumbents keep getting elected. The feeling seems to be "Government Sucks but our guy really looks out for us". NO NO NO. They all are guilty of looking after themselves. Tell me another profession where you can put in as little as 6 years and walk away with a pension equaling 100% of your salary, for life! Plus the best medical benefits in the country with zero copay, zero deductible and no premiums for life as well. You can't because there are none! Realize folks, they voted this benefit package for themselves. We did not get to vote on whether this was fair. If a publicly traded company offered their employees such a deal, there would be a shareholder revolt and every executive of the company would be fired for voting for such a ridiculous compensation package. why should we tolerate this from our elected officials.
There will be more on this subject I assure you but for now I will finish with this. If you agree with all or part of this, send a copy (or just the stuff you agree with) to your elected officials. I am including a link where you can find out how to contact them. Encourage as many of your friends to do the same thing. We need a government who looks after us for a change. One which severely limits the lobbying of special interest groups. One which quickly deals with the problems our country is facing. One which allows us, their employers, to decide on their compensation and benefits, or perhaps limits itself to the average of all the salary and benefits packages in the country. The "Compensation Czar" was good enough for the companies who took a tax payer bailout, why should the tax supported government officials be treated better?
As usual just my opinions. I hope you share them, and will share them with as many people as possible.
Elected officials contact information can be found at: http://conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm
and you don't have to be a conservative to use the info on their site!
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