Strange Numbers

In a Buster McNutt article titled Ring-Toning in the Holiday Season, Buster McNutt noted that American spent four billion dollars last year on their cell phone ring tones. Like, whoa! What if we had NOT been in a recession?

A second number immediately came to mind. Yesterday, the news wires were abuzz with the revelation that 73 people at the American Insurance Group (AIG) received bonuses of one million dollars or more. I heard this via a CNN feed, but only caught the headline.

AIG was, of course, the nation's largest insurance company who so desperately needed a bailout from our government in order to survive the housing collapse. And what I have subsequently learned is that the bonus money was actually a "retention bonus" to keep these folks on the payroll through thick and thin. (Nice incentive.) Even so, eleven jumped shipped but pocketed the money. Our tax dollars at work.

Does this make us angry? Or is our government so big and our fat cats so fat that we're numbed by it all.

A third set of numbers that comes to mind... the number of people living in slums worldwide with inadequate food and often unsafe water: one billion. Nearly 200 million in China alone. More than 35 million in Pakistan.

At this point, I don't even know what to say, except... if we could take all those ring tone dollars and send them to the real needy of this world, as opposed to those who feel they absolutely must express themselves with an ultra-personalized ring tone... I dunno. Or is that like telling your child to finish his plate because there are children starving in India?

As for those fat cats living the high life off government largess, our tax dollars at work, my prescription for you today is an 89 cent packet of Tums, and a two day break from reading the news. Take a deep breath, count to ten, and listen to some music.