Unemployment facts and the 'billion' perspective

Investor's Business Daily Poll: Household Unemployment

The IBD Poll each month asks respondents whether one or more members of their household is looking for a job. For September, 17 percent said "yes."

With roughly 118 million households in the U.S., that means there are actually 20 million people unemployed -- not the 7.8 million estimated by the Labor Department. And instead of a 4.9 percent unemployment rate, it's really closer to 12.6 percent. "Job-sensitive households" -- those with someone looking for a job or worried about losing one -- stood at 32 percent.

Source: Investor's Business Daily

n

This is too true to be funny.

The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending your tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases. Last updated in 1990. (Math is not my strength).

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours, 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

In 2005, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu was asking Congress for $250 billion to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number; what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman and child) you each get $516,528.

B. Or, If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or, If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

From the Internet, deemed "reasonably accurate" by snopes.com.

n

Good Quotations by Famous People:

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)

"Maybe this world is another planet's Hell." Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

"Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." George Eliot (1819-1880)

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true." James Branch Cabell

"Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down." Jimmy Durante

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1953

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

"Fill what's empty, empty what's full, scratch where it itches." The Duchess of Windsor, when asked what is the secret of a long and happy life

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't." Erica Jong

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

"Egotist: a person more interested in himself than in me." Ambrose Pierce (1842-1914)

"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains." Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Gary Rust is chairman of the board of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian, as well as a member of the editorial board.