Monday, November 10, 2008

Meet our New Deal President - in China!

During the election, Obama got a little play with his little program for infrastructural development. He plans to create a "National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank," because nothing says efficiency and stability like a title with the word "bank." This entity would then spend $6 million dollars, as Dr. Evil would say - ok, $60 billion dollars in our dollars. The catch - it would do this over 10 years.

Using America's world-renowned math skills, I divide 60 by 10 and get 6, umm, 6 million, whoops, $6 billion dollars a year. Since the US has 300 million or so people, that means that our New Deal president-elect plans to spend, per person per year, for the renewal of American prosperity - 20 bucks!

Meanwhile, China just announced its own stimulus package, focused on public works: the equivalent of $586 billion, in two years. Since China has about 1.4 billion people, it will spend a little more than $200 per person per year, or almost exactly 10 times the Obamanomics amount.

But hey, we can think big like China too: we're spending $200 per person per year - to bail out failed banks. And that's just round 1.

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