Do Big Numbers from Big Government Numb Voters into Acquiescence?
Big Media has done its job well in throwing Big Numbers at the average American. Fittingly so, because taxpayers have paid heavily from their hard-earned dollars to keep university and central-planning statisticians in employment cranking them out.
Trouble is, the numbers get so big that they lose any real meaning. Who cares if our debt is 14 trillion, 140 trillion, or 1400 brazillian? All the better to hoodwink the average person into even more acceptance. Global mathematics all but makes the whole issue null for most voters–even more reason to make some emotional tangent or sentimental Twinkie the basis for candidate support.
A popular email forward in recent weeks attempts to get readers to compare Big Budget numbers with ones they are more familiar with:
* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000
Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts so far: $3.85
Come to think of it, with few households having full-time managers in place these days–that is, educated stay-at-home moms–family budgeting is often given short shrift, causing parents to work ever longer hours to make up shortfalls in hit-and-miss fashion, though financial targets remain elusive and stopgap.
