Who’s Dependent on Whom?

I was recently forwarded yet another “joke” about all the “freeloaders that the decent taxpayers of our society are forced to support.” I’ve edited punctuation, syntax and grammar for clarity.

In the joke a Texas man is filling out his tax form and,

In answer to the question, ‘Do you have any dependents?’, I wrote in: “Yes, I have lots of dependent’s. I’m supporting: illegal immigrants; crack heads; unemployable bastards; seemingly the cast of The Jerry Springer Show; 80,000 people in our 133 penal establishments in Texas; leftovers in Texas from Katrina; half of Mexico; some of the Congress and most of the Senate; a super-bloated bureaucracy at every level; and a foreign-born President”

Gosh, apparently this wasn’t an acceptable answer.

Now this guy is clearly an ass without a lot of sympathy for his fellow Americans in need. With the exception of illegal immigrants, the people he lists are all victims of circumstance: people addicted to drugs, who can’t find work (not the same as unemployable), who have been displaced by a natural disaster, and the like. And he’s clearly someone who can’t accept reality, still insisting that the legitimately elected President of the United States is “foreign-born” even though Hawaii (even though it’s in the Pacific, it is a State.) has produced his birth certificate.

But what is particularly annoying is

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By the Numbers

This is just some food for thought, numbers that that I find it difficult to get my head around, particularly how they relate to one another. How do you make sense of them?  Especially in light of the debate over current budget priorities?

Value of a Life:

  • The EPA estimates the value of life at $9.1 million.
  • The FDA estimates the value of life at $7.9 million.
  • For the Transportation Department the cost is only $6 million
  • Homeland Security say the cost of preventing death by terrorism may be 100 times higher than death by other means.

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(source: “As U.S. Agencies Put More Value on a Life, Businesses Fret,” by Binyamin Appelbaum. The New York Times, February, 16,2011.)

Profits, Taxes, Bailouts and Layoffs at one company:

  • Last week there were protests over the $885 million tax refund received by a Boston based company, State Street Corp.
  • The company reported $1.56 billion in profits last year.
  • It received a bailout of $2 billion in October 2008, though it repaid in in June 2009.
  • On Nov. 30 State Street announced that it is cutting 1,400 jobs, or 5 percent of its workforce.
  • In 2010 Chief Executive Officer Joseph “Jay” Hooley received compensation valued at $12.9 million.

(source: “State Street’s $885 Million Tax Refund Sparks Boston Protest,” Christopher Condon. Bloomberg, April 15, 2011)

State budget deficits:

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