An Exercise in Digression

Well, the Visionary hasn't shared any New American Visions since June 2'nd, so I'm beginning to wonder if we've returned to a 2-way conversation. Looks like we have, at least for now, by default. So...let's continue apace.

I think Harry Stone is just the type of guy I had in mind in my S.C. analysis...and he has a distinct advantage over the others I mentioned, in that, although fictitious, he is still alive, at least in syndication. (for those of you who have become confused at this point due to lack of context, see Sage Words' last post, and follow the links contained therein as necessary. Thank you for your support.)

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:
(my own,very original transitional phrase)


The World of High Finance, as seen from the perspective of the Our Government Leaders:



I've always been partial to cherry pie, so you can imagine my delight, when I photographed the Great Economic Recovery Plan and it turned out like that. What more could one ask for?

It was almost like winning the Lottery. I mean the BIG Lottery. The Grand Champion Lottery: POWER BALL .

Yessir!! That's what it felt like.

Until I got to thinking about it...


See, there was this guy in South Dakota who won the Big One this week. I mean a HUGE 30-state 232-million dollar single-winner payoff. He looked so Happy in that picture, with his giant check for that BIG Payoff...



Too bad he won't get what he was promised.

Cause.....

The Lotto Scam goes like this: The jackpot keeps building up to a wondrous amount...20-million dollars or so at a time, depending upon how many tickets get sold...we all keep pumping in the money and eventually somebody like Neal, or a bunch of workers from the local factory who chipped in every week for tickets, wins the prize.

Pictures are taken; gushing feature stories written; well is wished, and everybody is just as warm and fuzzy as they can be...including, and especially, the MEDIA. It's NEWS. OBOY!!!

Then, somewhere down there in the fine print, we find out that the check, and the big publicity picture is actually (gasp)...a lie. That's right. Our government (or if you prefer, governments) lied to us.

---Well, they don't put it that way...I mean it's the Government, so it's OK, right? "It's OK. Trust us. You elected us. Trust us."---

Well,

Neal, as it turns out, took the lump-sum payment. As punishment, he starts out with half the prize amount. (Why? Well, that's just the way it is. It might not seem fair to the winner, but really, it is. Really. Trust us)

232-million X .5 = (and here I rely on my trusty on-board calculator) 116-million.

116-million, minus Taxes (Gotta have our Taxes. How can you have a prize if you don't pay your Taxes!!??)

Or for that matter, "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!!??"

...sorry, Pink Floyd moment.


Anyway,
116-million, minus Taxes = 88.5 million for Neal.

Still not bad. But not 232-million, either.

Not what we were shown. (Remember in the Running Man, when everybody was shown pictures of "last season's winners" lounging on the beach, and later Arnold and The Girl found their rotting corpses in a locker room?...ya gotta love that movie.)

So, (Am I rambling yet? Really?) 232 = 88-and-a-half in Govspeak.

The point being...
When you hear a financial plan from the government...any government...you'd best remember ole Neal, the 232...I mean 88.5...million dollar winner. (BTW, if Neal decides to give any of that away, his recipient can expect the IRS et al to conduct a 50 to 55% grabathon. Sorry Neal, I know you meant well.)

But I still like cherry pie. You can't let yourself get jaded about everything.

Blog at ya later,
-Geezerguy