Recently, the U.S. Senate approved a debt hike of $1.9 trillion dollars. It looks like this: $1,900,000,000,000.
In Korean won you'd add three more zeros. 1,900,000,000,000,000 won.
This is the amount of money the U.S. government needs to borrow (mostly from China).
To put it in perspective, 1.9 trillion dollars, would be the same as giving every single person in Korea about 40 million won.
This is my biggest problem with government of any kind. It's too easy to spend money when it's not your money. It's just human nature.
It's why children spend money from their parents and don't feel guilty.
It's why casinos use chips instead of cash.
It's why stores prefer you to use credit cards instead of cash.
You don't feel anything when you gamble with chips or pay with a credit card.
The next time you go to Coffee Bean and order two lattes, try paying with cash. You might feel a little pain when you give it to the clerk. Spending cash hurts. Especially, when you've earned it yourself.
I remember my first part-time job in high school. After I got paid, I realized I had to work for one hour just to buy lunch for myself.
South Korea's 2010 government spending is around $250 billion or
291,000,000,000,000 won. That's a lot of lattes and lunches.
One of the few governments in the world that surprised me was Hong Kong.
In 2008, the government had a surplus of $14 billion. Instead of spending the money, the government decided to reduce taxes on salaried workers by 50%.
I'm still waiting for my government to do that someday.
1 comment:
speaking of Casinos, just came back from Vegas and came up playing craps. But you are right. i had to play for 3 hours to come up $250. Sucks!
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