Quick!

What are the three branches of government?

Name at least two members of the supreme court.

Point to Louisiana on a map?

The majority of Americans—three in four—identify Larry, Curly and Moe as the Three Stooges. That’s certainly understandable. But only two out of five respondents can correctly identify the executive, legislative, and judicial as the three branches of government.

More than three quarters of Americans can name at least two of the seven dwarfs, while less than a quarter can name two members of the Supreme Court.

Less than six months after Hurricane Katrina, one third of those surveyed couldn’t point to Louisiana on a map. 1Source Readers’ Digest, June 2012, citing cnn.com, business wire.com, and foxnews.com as their sources.

Really? And I thought Jay-Walking was a set-up.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Source Readers’ Digest, June 2012, citing cnn.com, business wire.com, and foxnews.com as their sources.

Only In America

We just received a letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce telling us that our 2010 Census form will arrive in about a week. I’m glad the government is spending billions to tell us this. Last year we received a letter from the government telling us that our stimulus check would arrive in about a week. Anybody else think this is a waste of money?

Oh, Good. Another Bailout

President Obama announced another bailout. It’s not likely to work, but he has to do something besides blame the “previous administration” for the economy.

Here’s why government spending won’t fix the economy: Government money has to come from somewhere.

  1. Taxes. Taxes come from the economy in the first place, so the net effect of government spending from taxes is zero.
  2. Borrowing. Sure that puts extra money in the economy, but because of the interest, each dollar spent is worth less than a dollar.
  3. Printing. Each extra dollar printed reduces the value of all the dollars already in circulation. Thus, each dollar spent is worth less than a dollar.

Government spending doesn’t create new wealth or extra jobs, it just redistributes money from those who pay taxes (or loan the government money) to those who help politicians get elected. 1I had a little help here from Glenn Beck’s Arguing With Idiots.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 I had a little help here from Glenn Beck’s Arguing With Idiots.

Government at Work

USA Today reports that the contractors who spent 16 billion dollars of the stimulus package created 30,383 jobs!

Incredible, the stimulus package is working. It only cost $528,610 per job. If the rest of the package is as successful, the stimulus should create just over one million new jobs.

Let’s turn over more stuff for the government to run.