Posted by Here is a little Thursday levity for everyone on Government Math for Kids. As we know if you were to line up all of the worlds economists, they would all be pointing in different directions.
“Let’s pretend that this milk cow represents YOU and that this CHAINSAW represents the Federal Reserve.” a gem of a quote from the linked article.
Good article, ScanJack. Well written piece.
As usual I found some elements I don’t particularly agree with.
A) “$228.1 billion goes towards interest on the debt incurred in past wars” — Is he referring to Iraq? As of 1997 we owed nothing on “past wars”.
B) So why the bulletpoint about the numbers incarcerated? I’d prefer that number be higher than lower — currently the number in jail is high while the crime rate is low. We don’t want it the other way around.
C) There is absolutely nothing wrong with the CPI model incorporating Hedonic Adjustments.
I do agree with the horror of the National Debt (in relation to our future). But I also think this is being dramatized for effect by “independent news sources”.
The NPR stories I HEARD on the radio about the national debt painted a picture pretty dire as well. There also appears to be loads of politicians and macro economists talking about how bad it is. Do I think they are all telling the truth or are saying this for the right reasons? I doubt they all are.
Politics never has an effect on what anyone ever says – obviously.
I do agree with the description of “dire”. I also think the bullet points on that particular article were augmented for effect — (read: trying too hard). Hell, one bullet point showing all the zeros in 3 trillion is enough in my book.
I always loved the use of zeros to emphasize a point to the ridiculous. Any time you have to actually count the zeros chances are you went overboard. You could hav just as easily used the word Trillion. My father likes to say “1000 Billion” – sort of grabs you.
It would seem that the trees have once again obscured the forest view.
I am a sapling!
You had me at sap …
my dollar isn’t worth crap here in japan….