district 12

You know, the whole news about this whole Economic Stimulus package is starting to drive me nuts. It’s on the news everyday and no one seems to know how it should be applied. Here is a suggestion:

(NOTE: I am working with rough numbers here and just trying to demonstrate a simple concept).

• According to Google, the US population stands at 303,824,640 (as of July 2008).
• For simplicity sake, let us approximate this number to 304,000,000.
• Since the stimulus package is given to tax paying citizens only, let us drop this number to 303,000,000.
• Using 2005 numbers according to Wikipedia, 15.73% of the population earn $100,000 or more.
• Let us now assume 10% of the population makes $150,000 or more.
• Let us also assume that the gov’t decides to cut off 10% of those top earners from the stimulus plan, we are left with a population of 30,400,000 eligible for the package.
• The new bill being put forth is $800,000,000,000
• If we divide the money amongst all eligible tax paying citizes i.e. $800,000,000,000 / 30,400,000, we get an approximate amount of $26,316 cash per tax paying citizen.

Now tell me if this would not stimulate the economy if you got this much money from the government. To make matters worse…let’s assume the government did not throw away the first $750,000,000,000 at bailing out banks, each individual would have first gotten appx $24,671 ($750,000,000,000 / 30,400,000). This means with the second stimulus plan included, every US tax paying citizen would get a total of $50,987.

What do I know, but common sense tells me that $50,987 in my pocket would go along way then any other type of stimulus plan. Why?…because the money would go to:

• Lower level employees and managers who lost their jobs, including those whom the government is trying to bail out and those especially in manufacturing industry.
• People in debt who have no way out and are trying to make ends meet
• Those who don’t have as much debt can actually spend that money and put it back into the economy. Think about it, people will go on a shopping spree….cars, TV’s, vacations, deposit or payoff of a house etc.

Again, what do I know…after all I’m just a regular tax paying citizen. Share your thoughts and opinions.

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You might have noticed I have not been posting a lot these days, I’ve been quite busy with work and doing some traveling. Also, my laptop has issues of it’s own and I’m planning on buying a new one.

During my stay in New Jersey it was interesting to note that every gas station had 1 or more attendants that pumped gas into your vehicle. You tell them how much you need, they punch it in and fill up your tank. I’m bringing this up because in Toronto (not sure about the whole of Canada), I’ve always found it dumb that you have to fill up your tank first with gas before paying. First of all, it’s self-service. After filling your car, you then go in to see the cashier, tell them your pump number and then pay. Toronto has had it’s fair share of drivers driving away without paying for gas….DUH! Yet nothing is being done, and station owners continue to complain….cry me a river! I’m not saying stealing gas is good, but they could implement a solution instead of whining.

When I also drove to the Massachusetts area, although it was self service; you had to actually go in to the cashier, tell them how much gas you need, your pump number and then pay. The cashier then punches it in and activates your pump from the inside. These seem like such simple and efficient solutions to gas theft. Either have an attendant do the job, or make people pay before pumping. I’m really curious to know what Toronto gas station owners are sleeping on!

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I came across this blog that tracks the abuse of the word “literally”. It is quite interesting actually in how each posts quotes someone using the word and then some visitors even analyze them. I thought it was sort of cool that there is a blog out there dedicated to a word in the dictionary, literally.

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I thought this was pretty nasty. I mean really, wtf would anyone want to do with this crap. Lord knows how many times my wristwatch has accidentally hooked on to door knobs and what not. This is just wrong on so many levels….but what do I know! I hope this doesn’t fly.

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As the week began, I was thinking of a couple of things that will be coming up this new year. Then I remembered that the Daylight Savings Time changes that will take place starting this year. DST will be extended. Previously DST began early April and ended late October. Now, it will begin early march and end early November. About.com has an excellent write up on all the changes and why. So, DST will be 4 weeks longer than it previously was.

Another funny thing is how the new DST changes will affect a lot of things. This all started in the US when the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed. Naturally, Canada had to follow suit, since business would be really screwed with all the time differences. If Canada didn’t Imagine how hard thins would be if the US changed their clocks earlier, just for us to change ours weeks later…it would not be a pretty sight. It was also interesting to see how things will be affected in the technology sector. I found this article on how the new DST changes will affect the Java Platform.

Just keep in mind the new schedule for DST.

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