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First, of all I strongly doubt you ever knew the answer to any of those questions,
Second, 4 of the 5 were questions are about present day and not 10 years ago.
Third, these questions are not meaningless trivia, they are all relevant questions that responsible citizens should be aware of in order to fulfill their civic duties competantly.
Here are the answers.
1. What is the average household's share of the National Debt including the unfunded Social Security and Medicare obligations?
According to USA today the total is 63.8 trillion dollars. The $63.8 trillion dollar number translates into $546,668 for every household in the United States.
Who cares? You should. It is your debt.
2. Who are the member banks of the Federal Reserve?
# Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin
# Lazard Brothers Banks of Paris
# Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
# Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam
# Lehman Brothers of New York
# Kuhn, Loeb Bank of New York
# Chase Manhatten Bank, and
# Goldman, Sachs of New York
Who cares if foreign banks control our monetary policy? You should
3. What is the aggregate limit on campaign contributions for a U.S. Citizen?
$2,400, subject to aggregate limit per candidate. $115,500 per two-year election cycle in total.
4. What is the aggregate limit on campaign advertising for Corporations (Foreign or U.S.)?
Unlimited.
Who Cares?
A corporation now has superior rights to a US Citizen. They are unlimited on what they can spend in advertising for candidates or causes. If that does not scare you, it should.
5. What company supplied the synthetic fuels and oil additives needed by the German military during WWII?
Standard Oil Company thru IG Farben.
Who Cares? You should. It is not the first or the last time American corporations and banks have been involved in supplying and financing both sides of wars. American Banks provided financing to the USSR used to produce the armaments used by North Vietnam against U.S. troops. These are the same corporations who now have no restrictions on advertising in political campaigns, and thereby can control government.
For the record, Lehman Brothers doesn't exist anymore--might want to check your facts before you just google the "answers"
(Should I assume that you never learned chemistry since you didn't regurgitate that fact?)
Trivia = facts. Simple questions that can be easily googled for an answer. Yup, all your questions are facts--the lowest level of learning. I'm not saying it's not good for students to learn it (contrary to your belief we DID study the national debt, and the structure of the federal reserve in economics and government classes), but it's not something that someone is going to remember for the rest of their lives. If I need the fact, I look it up--because what I absolutely learned in school is how to research questions, distinguish good and bad resources, and identify bias. THAT is important. Far more important than fact memorization.
Last edited by CaliTerp07; 04-22-2010 at 03:43 PM..
According to Kah, foreigners own a controlling interest in the shares of the New York Fed. He claimed that “Swiss and Saudi Arabian contacts” identified the top eight shareholders as
Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin
Lazard Brothers Banks of Paris
Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam
Lehman Brothers of New York
Kuhn, Loeb Bank of New York
Chase Manhatten Bank, and
Goldman, Sachs of New York (Kah, p. 13).
(Hah, look--I wonder if that's the source you grabbed your Lehman brothers list from...)
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Fortunately, we can take a more direct approach to the question of ownership of the New York Fed and the other Federal Reserve Banks. The New York Fed reports that its eight largest member banks on June 30, 1997 were:
All of the major shareholders seen here and all of the banks on the complete list are either nationally- or state-charted banks. All of them are American-owned. Kah’s claim that foreigners directly own the N.Y. Fed is completely wrong.
You're right, I didn't learn conspiracy theories in high school. I learned the history of how the federal reserve is created and run.
For the record, Lehman Brothers doesn't exist anymore--might want to check your facts before you just google the "answers"
(Should I assume that you never learned chemistry since you didn't regurgitate that fact?)
Trivia = facts. Simple questions that can be easily googled for an answer. Yup, all your questions are facts--the lowest level of learning. I'm not saying it's not good for students to learn it (contrary to your belief we DID study the national debt, and the structure of the federal reserve in economics and government classes), but it's not something that someone is going to remember for the rest of their lives. If I need the fact, I look it up--because what I absolutely learned in school is how to research questions, distinguish good and bad resources, and identify bias. THAT is important. Far more important than fact memorization.
I am sorry to have wasted the effort. If you believe that a government out of control, and a Supreme Court reducing your value as a Citizen are trivia and facts you do not need to know, I can only hope you are not a teacher, or a voter either for that matter.
I am sorry to have wasted the effort. If you believe that a government out of control, and a Supreme Court reducing your value as a Citizen are trivia and facts you do not need to know, I can only hope you are not a teacher, or a voter either for that matter.
And if you believe outdated conspiracy theories are facts, there's no point in trying to argue with you.
(I am about to be a teacher, and I vote every election )
1. What is the average household's share of the National Debt including the unfunded Social Security and Medicare obligations?
According to USA today the total is 63.8 trillion dollars. The $63.8 trillion dollar number translates into $546,668 for every household in the United States.
Yes, but that is if we put aside the money today to pay off all government obligations through 2090 or so. In reality, we have 80 years to raise the money.
The current debt is closer to 11 billion, which is much less of an obligation/household.
Add to this the fact that it is more equitable to spread the debt based upon peoples wealth. Since the top 1% of households in the country own 41% of the wealth, and the top 10% control about 70% of the wealth, lets assume they are responsible for the same portion of national debt.
This means that, if you include the unfunded mandates, the top 1% of the country should cover 24 trillion. The rest of us (those earning under about $350,000/year) need to cover $40 trillion. That calculation, while still big, is closer to $355,000/household. Remember, we have 80 years to come up with the cash, so that is about $4200/year per household.
Yes, that is a lot of cash, but the number gets even easier to handle if you calculate that the top 10% are responsible for about $44billion, so if you are one of the 90% who earn under $150K/year, your share is $189K, or about $2500/year over 80 years.
I didn't read this whole thread, but the math on the OP is very off. The logic of making minimum wage PER STUDENT makes the post ludicrous, as minimum wage is per hour, not per person.
Yes, but that is if we put aside the money today to pay off all government obligations through 2090 or so. In reality, we have 80 years to raise the money.
Set aside the money? Are you serious? WE HAVE A TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICIT. Setting aside money would require balancing the budget and then running a surplus for the next 80 years. There is about as much chance of that happening as the entire population learning to defecate gold bullion.
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The current debt is closer to 11 billion, which is much less of an obligation/household.
Actually the debt is 12.8 TRILLION.
Quote:
Add to this the fact that it is more equitable to spread the debt based upon people’s wealth. Since the top 1% of households in the country own 41% of the wealth, and the top 10% control about 70% of the wealth, lets assume they are responsible for the same portion of national debt.
This means that, if you include the unfunded mandates, the top 1% of the country should cover 24 trillion. The rest of us (those earning under about $350,000/year) need to cover $40 trillion. That calculation, while still big, is closer to $355,000/household. Remember, we have 80 years to come up with the cash, so that is about $4200/year per household.
Not only is it a fantasy to imagine for a minute that the rich are going to pay their fair share of the debt, but your calculation completely ignores debt service, which is currently running approx. $6150/year per household for a total of $10350 per household. Now take into account the 42% of tax payers who currently pay no Federal Income Tax, (I am sure they are eager to pay their part) the 26 million unemployed, The State debt, the local debt, the personal debt and explain to me where the money will come from.
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Yes, that is a lot of cash, but the number gets even easier to handle if you calculate that the top 10% are responsible for about $44billion, so if you are one of the 90% who earn under $150K/year, your share is $189K, or about $2500/year over 80 years.
U.S. National Debt Clock
If you really believe that this is a manageable problem, you really do not understand it. The country is headed for financial default, and what the end result of that is going to be is anyone's guess. Perhaps worldwide economic collapse, perhaps world war, perhaps both. Look at the website above and try to wrap your mind around the numbers, and the rate at which they are increasing, and then take some time to appreciate your life today, because the future holds many darker days ahead.
I didn't read this whole thread, but the math on the OP is very off. The logic of making minimum wage PER STUDENT makes the post ludicrous, as minimum wage is per hour, not per person.
No, in daycare (babysitting) each parent pays per child.
Besides, I believe the person who wrote it was being brash, suggesting cutting out the middleman and having parents pay teachers directly. I don't think it was to be taken literally. It was meant to give pause and thought to what value we place on teachers in general. This is why I posted it in the first place. The logic may seem off to you, but, I checked the math and I believe it is correct.
While reading the posts it seems there are only two sides ever taken on this issue.
1)WOW, teachers have a hard job and are underpaid and underappreciated. (Mainly posted by: teachers, children of teachers, or parents actively involved in the school system.)
2) Teachers are those who cannot do, are lazy, overpaid, people with cushy jobs, lots of vaction, tons of benefits, and don't even do the job that they are paid to do. Let them try the hard "real world" and they'll fold like the "girly" sissies they are. (Posted by ???)
I do not believe that MOST teachers are paid enough. I am NOT a teacher, but I do have a few friends who are.
I can say that the friends that I have do not just work the 8:30-3:30pm school day and head home.
They are there until 5pm and sometimes after for parent teacher conferences, or other meetings that are done after the school day is done.
They do not get time during the day to plan their lessons, so they do them at home.
My friends also all work during the Summer months, they teach Summer school & a few of them do private tutoring to children. They do this because some of them don't make enough during the year to compensate the cost of living where they are. Some do it out of pure enjoyment for their job & being able to help the kids that need it.
With that said however, there are SOME teachers/aides/subs who are definitely overpaid for what they do.
I just had a conversation with someone over the weekend who is NOT a teacher by education, she has a degree, but not in education. She is now a sub in her children's school district and she is sometimes paid to sit in a room for an entire day ... to do basically, nothing.
It is apparently called a "support" room and it is where children who didn't complete their homework go to, minimal discipline issues. Sometimes, there are not any children sent down to this room during the course of a day.
So I asked "what do you do then?" and she laughed and said "She reads a book, does her nails,made out her Christmas cards".... Nice.
THAT is what upsets me as a tax payer. If you are being paid ANYTHING to sit in a room and do your nails in HOPES that a child may be sent down to the room, you are being paid too much in my eyes.
She is not always in this room, sometimes she is in actual classrooms, and that is fine, but to be paid to sit in a room to possibly monitor no one all day long, is a complete waste of the school district and tax payer dollars.
All in all, I do believe that teachers are not paid enough though....
do you really think teachers are done for the day as soon as that bell rings and do nothing work related on weekends and breaks? trust me they work just as much as the rest of us and they are extremily under paid. a bartender with 0 college dept makes more than most teachers do.
I have to disagree....I am going to use my SIL for the example...she makes 60k a year and has only been teaching for aprox. 7 years, she works 190 days a year, has summers off, two weeks at Christmas, a week and Thanksgiving, a week at Spring break, holidays and weekends. She has insurance that is paid by tax dollars for herself and her husband, and a generous retirement.
My husband who is an Electrician (does mainly commercial and industrial) who also went to school for 4 years (same as his sister) works 8-14 hr days (usually avg 60 hrs a week), weekends, nights, travels for work, works in the snow, rain, heat, gets one week off for vacation, has health insurance that we pay for (he is diabetic) retirement that we pay for, tools that we pay for and he does not make 60k.
My husband not only has to work mentally and he also has to work physically. Lets see that from a teacher!!!!
Teachers have it too good...thank goodness my state is looking into changing that.
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