Billions And Buses

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 billion seconds ago it was 1959.
• A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
• A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
• A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

So far, so good, right? OK, onwards.

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

OK, Now 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?

• If you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.
• If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.
• If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Of course, these figures do not include the cost of new school buses.