9/11 Insignificant?

[markusf]

Originally posted by DanS
marcusf: is this a word question? ~3/4 of Americans work, so that $200 billion (or whatever) is about $1,000/working person.

Yes, I can see how it would be $1,000/working person over the period of a couple of years.

"The average american salary is $20,000"

Don't know where you get this figure.

The average American’s annual salary is $26,000
- 1998 U.S. Department of Labor survey -


Of course this survey didn't take into account illegal immigrants working in california etc. There was a site here before that listed average salaries for all countries and the US was one of the lowest in the western world.. After you included living expenses. Of course most uneducated americans seem to think everyone living in the US is rich

[markusf]

Originally posted by DanS
"would cost 50% of the earnings of the average working family in the US ?"

Where do you find these figures, you ditz!

average income in the states is 20,000 assuming 1 person in the family works.. if the "war" costs 100 billion, 100 billion that was given as a figure for rebuilding, another 130 billion for airports, infustructure damnge etc etc lets say that comes out to a max of $10,000 US per person. Thats half of what the average working familly makes in the states... Please try to learn something about your own country before you try and argue. You add up all those numbers and you realize the media is just feeding you a load of bs..

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by markusf


average income in the states is 20,000 assuming 1 person in the family works.. if the "war" costs 100 billion, 100 billion that was given as a figure for rebuilding, another 130 billion for airports, infustructure damnge etc etc lets say that comes out to a max of $10,000 US per person. Thats half of what the average working familly makes in the states... Please try to learn something about your own country before you try and argue. You add up all those numbers and you realize the media is just feeding you a load of bs..

One person works?

[markusf]

Anyone going to argue that the average salary in the states is 20,100 US ?

http://www.magma.ca/~jagwar/cdnGuideBrainDrain/cdnGuideBrainDrain/node36.html

[DanS]

I swear they should retroactively fail you in your math classes.

Long story short, $200 billion ($100 billion war prosecution; $100 billion directly for 9/11) is about 2% of annual GDP.

Median household income (what you're confusing for an "average") is $42,000. Considering that there are over 100 million households in the US, an "average" household would pay about $2,000, or less that 5% of income.

If this were to have happened in Canada, times all the above burden by about 13.

[faded glory]

Average American Income is around 38,000-50,000.

Why do people like you marcus, try to paint us all in with the "Stupid and Ignorant" brush.

Your obvouisly the only ignorant person here. If you honestly believe that most americans are stupid...I challenge you to get up off your lazy troll ass and come over here. You will be very suprised actually..


This is what I know about EU heads of state,
1)Blair
2)Gerhard
3)Berlusconi


ahh thats it. I dont live there, I dont watch BBC.....How would I know this stuff?

But who really cares? They didnt teach us about the EU 15 years ago in school And if I had the time (and interest) to look that crap up, I would.. Buts its dull, boring, and would be a massive waste of time.

Besides, its quite insignificant you know. Like a quiet voice in the swamp.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by El Awrence
You mean they're an empire again?!

BUNDEStag, Imran, BUNDEStag...

They should bring back the Reichstag... those were fun times .

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by faded glory
Average American Income is around 38,000-50,000.

Why do people like you marcus, try to paint us all in with the "Stupid and Ignorant" brush.

Your obvouisly the only ignorant person here. If you honestly believe that most americans are stupid...I challenge you to get up off your lazy troll ass and come over here. You will be very suprised actually..


This is what I know about EU heads of state,
1)Blair
2)Gerhard
3)Berlusconi


ahh thats it. I dont live there, I dont watch BBC.....How would I know this stuff?

But who really cares? They didnt teach us about the EU 15 years ago in school And if I had the time (and interest) to look that crap up, I would.. Buts its dull, boring, and would be a massive waste of time.

Besides, its quite insignificant you know. Like a quiet voice in the swamp.

Actually what faded is trying to say is that many Americans are busy trying to feed their kids, make the morgage payment, make the car payment, pay all the other bills and still have a little left over to relax just a little bit before going to work the next day. So you will have to excuss most of the country for only paying attention to what immediately affects them. Would it be nice to have most people aware of the causes of resentment towards Americans? Yeah it would. But people like my mom had more immediate concerns when I was growing up than complex issues behind the Iran Hostage crisis, like putting food on the table and filling the car up with gas. If you have the time and ability to keep up with foreign events, then good for you. But don't expect others to have the same free time.

[mactbone]

Hehe, all money is "made". Haha, haha, ooooh, that kills me. Fails to take into account (among other things), companies (they usually pull in a little mopre than the wages of all the workers in the company, just a little), Stock Market (hey, you don't actually "work" for the money), and money that flows on from other countries, that the US taxes.

Hey, what's after trillions? Quadillions?

[faded glory]

Depends, if your in England its "Billions" not "Trillions" and after UK's Trillions (our billions), im not sure whats next.


Quadrillions? That sounds right. I guess we will have to wait till Bill Gates gets there

[Deity Dude]

First point from a stupid American: (to the poster who asked if Americans knew who the heads of the various European States were)

Isn't the eventual goal of the EU, whether stated or not, to become a sort of "United States of Europe"? If so, here's a question for the Europeans: Who's the governor of Michigan or North Carolina or Idaho?

Second Point from a stupid American: (to the poster who took labor dept stats and applied various formulas to them)

If you try to take static figures from a survey and apply mathematical formulas to them to determine the validity of the $100bil number, you understand nothing about economics. The number is indeterminable but grows daily.

Forgetting about the obvious direct impact consider a more removed impact. Just one example:

I own a small, small business. Not even 1/1000th of 1% of the American economy. Nevertheless, my profits have been down about $30,000 over the period. But, to say that the cost to me was $30,000 is ridiculous. Take that lost $30,000 and compound it over years and years at an average rate of return. Then see what you come up with.

And what about "Company X" who is a little more marginal of a company than mine and it goes out of business? Then you could say the cost of 9/11, to that proprietor, (not to mention his employees and customers and suppliers) would be the lifetime earnings of his company. (20-30 years at $50,000 - $60,000 a year compounded annually is in the millions and that's only one person) What happens when he can't send his kids to college? (Lifetime earnings of a college educaiton vs High School education = ???) What happens when he cant afford the new car or a night out at a restuarant? It goes on and on and on.

Third point from a stupid American:

Maybe some of the non-North Americans here are used to fighting wars on their own turf every 20 years or so, if not more frequently. I'm glad to say we're not.

Maybe that causes them to accept/expect these types of events and underestimate the losses. On the same token, maybe it shocks us a little more. So be it, but, I know which side of that equation I want to be on.

I'm glad to say that you have to go back to the 1860's to find a war in North (not Central or South) America. And that was a civil war. What continent other then Australia and Antartica can say that.

So, to all of you that want to pooh-pooh this event go ahead. But personally, I can't even imagine what the true cost is. I do know one thing. $100bil is no where near accurate - it is way too low.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Deity Dude
Isn't the eventual goal of the EU, whether stated or not, to become a sort of "United States of Europe"? If so, here's a question for the Europeans: Who's the governor of Michigan or North Carolina or Idaho?

That´s totally beside the point. The US is ONE country with ONE language and ONE (eerr?) culture. Not so with the EU. You can´t compare US and the EU in other terms than purely economical.

Besides that I´d like to say that September 11th has been a gigantic success for Bush, he has like 80-85% of the population behind him, and NOTHING he does will get criticized for a VERY long time. If he would disband congress and declare marshal law, or change the contitution so he could be elected president for life, the people would applaude him. And the military would applaude him ´cause he´s increased military spending, and that´s all they´re interested in, really. I would think that he has "world terrorism" to thank for his massive support, he should send a "Thank You Card" to Usama bin Laden

[Roland]

Deity Dude:

"Isn't the eventual goal of the EU, whether stated or not, to become a sort of "United States of Europe"?"

Ok, so you only have to know Prodi. Or Aznar ?

"Maybe some of the non-North Americans here are used to fighting wars on their own turf every 20 years or so, if not more frequently. I'm glad to say we're not. Maybe that causes them to accept/expect these types of events and underestimate the losses. On the same token, maybe it shocks us a little more."

To be cynical - an event that pushes the US murder statistics from 15.000 per year to 18.000 in 2001 ? What about those losses ?

El Awrence:

"BUNDEStag, Imran, BUNDEStag... "

Well, no... the Bundestag is in the Reichstag. Isn't that obvious ?

[Bereta_Eder]

We're talking real calendar forms.

Originally posted by DinoDoc


IIRC That's when the Berlin Wall fell, paiktis22.

Quit following me around Ms Monneypenny.

[Keygen]

Originally posted by markusf
What has always confused me about this is why go to all the trouble of hijacking an airplane and flying it into sky scrappers, when you could do far more damage driving up to a city resovoir and dropping in some kind of chemical weapon, or blowing up the alaska pikeline, trains etc.

The terrorists weren't seeking for a large amount of casualties but giving a strong blow to the American pride and public security by hiting symbolic buildings like the WTC and the pentagon. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for the rest civilized world they additionally caused the death of too many people.

Originally posted by paiktis22
It's 11/9.

11/9 = European date format

9/11 = American date format

Both are refering to the same date.
Americans just put the month first and the day after.