no more tax breaks
obama wants to cut $4b in tax breaks for the oil industry. $4b. sounds like a lot. and in absolute terms of you and me, it is. a whole lot. but it's kinda paltry compared to the $100b in profits shared by the oil companies. so really. they don't need tax breaks. course let's think about what will happen. most of the $4b won't come from profits. it will be passed on to the consumer. you and me. which works out to about $12 a person. less if you spread it over all consumers in the world instead of just us americans. and yeah there's gonna be a big stink. but really. we're over budget by *trillions* of dollars. to put things in perspective, suppose you owe me $1000. enough to be painful. your kid wants to help. so he gives you the $4 profit from his lemonade stand. sweet gesture. but you still owe me $1000 to three significant figures. xkcd put it another way. the difference between trillion and billion is the difference between a sip of wine and 30 seconds with your daughter. and a bottle of gin and spending the night with her.