So what can a person expect to get for $120k?
In some areas of the country like Wyoming you could buy this house for $120k. It seems to be quite nice but the cost of living is lower compared to most other areas of the US and you will be likely below the median average income.
And in other areas like New Jersey where the cost of living is much higher you could get something like this small but nice single family home.
Gold is currently $1615/ozt so you could buy a little more than 74 troy ounces.
The ”other” precious metal is $28.16/ozt so you could get 4,261 troy ounces of silver if you prefer.
A fairly nice DPMS ar-15 with quality attachments like this would run you approximately $1200 (out the door) so you could buy100 of them with $120k.
Maybe exotic sports are your thing; you could buy this 2010 Porsche 911 turbo Cabriolet:
Or this 2009 Lamborghini with $120k:
And if you insist on something insane you could get a 2010 Dodge Viper like this for $110k. You will need that remaining $10k to keep the thirsty 8.4L V-10 powerplant happy:
I looked up the projected spending for 2012 by the US Federal Government, it will be $3.8 trillion dollars.
I did some quick math in excel.
Remember the number in red when people spout that taxes need to be raised to cover the deficit. There are quite a bit of things you could buy for $120,000, but one thing you can’t get is 2 seconds of federal spending.
I want to start a new trend, instead of using the USD as a unit of measure, let’s use government spending where 1 sec=$120,000.00
Exxon Mobil recorded a 2011 profit of 342500 secs (or just under 4 days) of federal spending.
Drew Brees (who shattered Dan Marino’s passing record last year) signed a contract with the NO Saints this offseason to become the highest paid player in the NFL for 833.3 secs that will be spread out over 5 years (an average of 166.6 secs per year).
According to BHO and CONgress you are rich if you make more than 2.083 secs.
The median income of an individual in the US is 0.43 secs of federal spending.
The average net price for an incoming Harvard student (assuming grant and scholarship aid) is 0.152 secs of fed spending. If no aid or scholarship are applied it is approximately 0.35 secs.
Having costs of $120k/second is not a lack of taxes being levied, it is wreckless and debilitating spending; and this is only federal spending, it does not include state and local expenditures. There aren’t enough rich victims in the world to pillage so as to fund an entity that consumes $120k/sec.
That IS a fantastic way to look at federal spending, how many fractions of a second of federal spending it costs Americans to pay for our more expensive bills. So it takes me about one year to make 1 second of fed spending, and I guess I get to spend or save about 30% of it for myself when all the embedded taxation is also considered. It would be great to get this article posted in a few more places. I found it linked in The Daily Crux email.
Thanks, it is just amazing how much money is being spent, and it puts it into perspective even more when you realize that all that money either has to be forcibly taken from people today or thrust upon our youth and turn them into debt serfs.
The conversion of everything into time popped in my head because a friend was talking about seeing a futuristic movie called “In Time” where time is the universal currency.
I hope it gets picked up by more sites too, so people can get a chance to see the numbers in a different perspective. It is unsustainable and things will be consiously and constructively changed or it will crumble under it’s own weight.
Why doesn’t Romney and the other Republicans out there start using something like this. It’s time to stand up and be heard ! This should be sent to every member of the house and senate on both sides of the isle. No sense in sending it to the President as he wouldn’t “get it”.
Try finding that Wyoming house. It’s baloney.
Dennis,
The reason is that Romney and the other republican’s don’t want this to change. As much as you, and I would like to believe there is a push from the right for smaller gov’t, there simply is not. They all “get it”, they just won’t benefit from changing it, so they just pay lip service to “balancing the budget” and “reducing the countries debt” during election years. Elephant or Jackass, they are all the same.
Unfortunately I tend to agree with Theis. Both parties have been just as bad with spending, though not always on the same things. Folks in Congress seem to care more about winning their next election than about governing this county.
you’re right.
members of congress will mention the unemployment numbers but the only unemployment numbers they really care about are their own.
This is what cracks me up, put a pic of a property/house (that is a short sale and representative of similar properties also in SD and MT) to illustrate the issue that the federal government is spending $120k every time you blink. And all some people will take out of that is the house pictured for $120,000 must be baloney. Is the math at the end baloney?
Talk about missing the point.