Dance of the Knights

Finding the website iftheworldcouldvote.com (henceforth ITWCV) has brought more questions to mind about the polling process than I was previously willing to consider. If this website gives us a truly accurate representation of the United States' voting mentality then we should be worried about what the other polls are telling us. Obama holds the favor of nearly 80% of America while McCain has a mighty 20% going by the figures provided by ITWCV. How could our general concensus as portrayed by RealClearPolitics (A, B, C), Gallup, Pollster, and other reputable polling organizations be so far away from the consensus seen on an unbiased website (whose polling process is much simpler) created by three Icelandic men? Perhaps their website is indeed biased in some manner, but the percentages it gives us for other countries seem to agree with MSNBC, the BBC, Reader's Digest, and Gallup. I have honestly been hard pressed to find a world poll that gets close to agreeing with ITWCV's results for America.

What does this mean to us? Perhaps the polling techniques used for the current election are a bit off. This election season has seen us inundated with figures from "registered voters", "likely voters", election "markets", and a whole slew of nifty categories and techniques that keep us on our toes believing that they have managed to accurately predict the election results. One more technique that must be taken into account is sensationalism. Why would people (in this case those who only take an interest in the media when a big issue arises, such as an election) continue to be as interested in the newspapers and polling organizations if they were to predict a landslide victory for one candidate? Personal stake is involved to a degree unseen since...wait...don't news organizations always compete for the chance at a better profit? That seems like quite a personal stake right there.

Finally, just to clear this up: I am not suggesting that poll results are being purposefully manipulated (conspiracy theories may be fun, but they are not my way of life). I merely raise an issue that has arisen through a sizable discrepancy between different polling methods. Perhaps the polls are as close as the media tells us, perhaps they are far from it. The fact that I now have to question the honesty of one side or the other worries me the most. The media was protected by the First Amendment to allow us a good dose of, if not a right to, common, mass distributed honesty. What are we then left to believe if that honesty were to disappear in the stead of sensationalism or outright manipulation?

I will leave you on a good note: I just returned from the future and know exactly who will win the 2008 presidential election...that part is unimportant, though. The good note is that your lives will continue going on even after the initial rejoycing or disappointment. Have a safe, happy, and well informed November fourth! Remember to set your clocks back. Wash behind your ears. Tell those near and dear to you just how much you really care about them. Tip your servers well. Most importantly, vote.

Open Letter to the United States Congress

To whom it may concern in the United States Congress,

You were our last hope against this unnecessary bailout plan, yet you were swayed not by your constituents (for a reminder: the people who vote for you to represent their collective ideals), but by completely unrelated incentives tacked onto the bill like flies on road kill. Yes, this whole issue stinks to high heaven of everything we have feared most from our government – our elected representatives ignoring the clear opinions of a large majority of their constituents, flaunting their independence from the general populace, falling hard for scare tactics from their fellow politicians, and being gullible enough to believe that such hastily added on goodies will actually make up for the tax burden that rests on all of our shoulders. Not to forget, but this bill is asking for unprecedented abuse by the Treasury Department along with the companies who will be using this money despite the oversights tacked on at the last minute.

Why am I raising such a fuss? This money must come from somewhere, whether it be through more taxes, more loans from foreign nations, or the printing of more money. No one option is best, and I shall explain why. Raising taxes is not a viable solution when our economy is so unstable, especially since the burden would likely be placed upon the backs of those who are already having trouble affording food, fuel, and other basic necessities. The middle class cannot support more taxes, especially with an unprecedented amount of household debt. The rich could afford to pay more taxes, but let’s consider who you, our Congress, pander to most often. Moving onto loans… Surely you are aware of our mounting national debt; if not then I kindly ask that you read my first post. Our annual interest payments on the national debt make it seem unlikely that our financial credit will continue to stand in any sort of esteem among the lenders in the international community.

Two options down, one more to go: printing more money. There is a very common problem with faith-backed currencies, and that problem is that they are faith-backed. The value of a currency falls when people (predominately investors) lose faith in said currency. Printing more money is a surefire way to lose said faith. Take a look at Zimbabwe or Germany’s early Weimar Republic for a couple examples of what happens when a currency is sent to the hell of hyperinflation. The last thing that any of us wants to do is pay for a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of worthless cash. So now you see that there are no good options to actually pay for this bailout package, and yes, you have placed our nation into an even worse monetary conundrum than we were in to begin with.

My irritation with this is far from finished. The dust has yet to settle from your “historic bailout” yet stocks around the world continue to fall. Inflation continues to rise. Americans are losing their pensions, 401Ks, and the guarantees of Social Security at an unprecedented rate, yet you line the pockets of failed companies rather than aid your own citizens directly. The Trickle-down theory does not work in any other than the theoretical realm; three decades of its failures should have taught you that. It’s time for you to get a grip on reality and bailout those who really need it – the ordinary citizens: the families who are spending an arm and a leg to raise children, or struggling to keep their homes, or terrified that retirement is right around the corner but there will be no money left to support them in their old age.

You have failed us, Congress. You have been disconnected from the American public for so long that you don’t even know how to help those you were supposed to represent. Luckily for those ordinary folks such as myself the election is right around the corner. Do not expect to keep your office if you have the gall to slap us in the face like you did. Hopefully the future will bring in a brighter crowd of Congressmen who actually possess enough of a spine to stand up against scare tactics and truly aid the general public.

Sincerely,
An Unhappy Citizen

Why I Love Cartoon Wit

This is in use courtesy of Nuklear Power, possibly one of the best web comics on the net that has managed running over 1000 Episodes. The direct link to this image is http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=080925. All copyrights to this image belong to Brian Clevinger, the genius behind this great web comic.

Tomorrow Never Comes Until It's Too Late

I've been frustrated lately with the neglect of politicians, reporters, and other public figures to actually address the debt burden that our nation faces. Paltry sums are mentioned while a $700,000,000,000 bailout is considered for major Wall Street firms. I feel it necessary to put some of these into perspective for our own good through the use of some basic, high school level mathematics.

Now, let's consider the national debt to actually get serious about some figures. The current gross federal debt stands at $9.7 trillion with the public debt, as a portion of that, being $5.3 trillion. Our national population is in the range of 300 million men, women, and children. Each individual in this nation is currently in debt to our government for somewhere around $32,000. Upon birth, each child will suddenly be burdened with this debt. This is food for thought, especially since this is only the debt that we are told about.

Of course, there are hidden costs, figure manipulations, two wars to fund, the Defense Department, our typical annual taxes, social security, huge government bailouts for irresponsible companies, Medicare, Medicaid, business incentives for large companies, etc, etc that put us in even more debt to our government each and every day. In reality, the figure for our debt to the government is likely much higher (around $59.1 trillion, and that's not an out of the ass figure) and will continue climbing until we hold the right people accountable for their actions.

And just to give some figures to put this debt ($9.7 trillion) into perspective:

-Going by this site (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Lawns-725/GRASS.htm) the average blades of grass per square foot ranges from 10,500 to 14,000.
-The number of square feet in an acre is 43,560

-This means the blades of grass per square acre ranges from 457,380,000 and 609,840,000
-To translate our debt into blades of grass means that it would take up 15,905 to 21,207 acres.
-A square mile is 27,878,400 feet.

-This brings the total blades of grass per square mile to somewhere between 292,723,200,000 and 390,297,600,000
-Our debt, in blades of grass, would cover about 24.9-33.1 square miles of grasslands.

Let's use real money here:
-Going by this site (http://www.crunchweb.net/87billion/) and doing some of my own number crunching, I figured that we can pack $4800 of one dollar bills into one cubic foot
(this would go to $24,000 in $5s, $48,000 in $10s, $96,000 in $20s, $240,000 in $50s, and $480,000 in $100s).
-Our debt would occupy 2,020,833,333 cubic feet
(404,166,666 cubic feet in $5s, 202,083,333 cubic feet in $10s, 101,041,666 cubic feet in $20s, 40,416,666 cubic feet in $50s, and 20,208,333 cubic feet in $100s).
-It would cover about 46,391 square acres
(9278 square acres in $5s, 4639 square acres in $10s, 2319 square acres in $20s, 927 square acres in $50s, and 463 square acres in $100s).
-Translated to miles it would cover roughly 72.5 square miles
(14.5 square miles in $5s, 7.2 square miles in $10s, 3.6 square miles in $20s, 1.5 square miles in $50s, and .72 square miles in $100s).
-Don't forget, this is one foot deep.
-Continuing off this "real money" trend, the Empire State Building boasts a total volume of 37,000,000 cubic feet (http://www.esbnyc.com/tourism/tourism_facts.cfm?CFID=46899)
-We would need about 54.6 Empire State Buildings worth of space to put this money somewhere
(10.9 in $5s, 5.5 in $10s, 2.7 in $20s, 1.1 in $50s, and .6 in $100s).

-And yes, I mean packing the building wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling.

Notice that I did not even bother with the $59.1 trillion; I have hope that the “paltry” sum of $9.7 trillion put things into perspective. This is real money that our government is dealing with. We're not joking around when we pay them our taxes, so why are they joking around with us when they spend them?

P.S.

You know how in movies there are the criminals who hold a lot of people hostage, hold some deadly disease hostage, or hold the machine of doom hostage? You know how they usually get a briefcase stacked full with $1,000,000? They always want them in unmarked $20s. Funny thing is that they never do the math. The average briefcase holds .7 cubic feet of space, .8 if you’re lucky. Remember the previously mentioned figures? 1 cubic foot of space holds $96,000 in $20s, meaning that .7 cubic feet would hold only $67,200. This means one thing: either the criminals in these movies are complete morons and forget to count the money, or the film makers don’t know how to stack their $20s very well. Pick one.