Numbed by the numbers...

The other night, Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee was saying on the news that the entire bailout offered by the U.S. Government is now reaching the $5 trillion level in an attempt to shore up the collapse of the financial system. This information actually originates from CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London; so, it’s not just the $ 700 billion that was passed in October, the $800 billion offered last week or not even the $ 2 trillion that the Federal Reserve is apparently on the hook for. All counted, that’s roughly a $ 16,350 extra burden for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Another way to look at it would be to equate the country’s GDP ($13.78 trillion) to the median annual U.S. household income ($48,000) we would have the following; that household would be spending about $50,000 a year – that is, exceeding what it makes by close to $2,000 – and would have piled up about $43,000 in credit card debt and now would have to face another $17,000 in debt with that impeding bailout. If this is not insane, tell me what is. When these huge numbers are put in perspective, their sheer size clearly shows that our government is now “numbed” by them, doesn’t think clearly anymore and after all, what’s one trillion? We’ve passed that point; today, anything goes under the pretense that AIG, Fanny Mae, Citigroup and the auto industry are “too big too fail...”