Politics – Supercow.net

There’s a stereotype throughout much of the United States that Kentucky is a poor state. I often wondered why this was, because even though we do have some poor areas in Kentucky, I’ve also seen poor areas in every state I’ve traveled in so that’s definitely not the only reason for the stereotype. I thought I’d dig into the topic a bit more after seeing this picture from Mentalfloss.com floating around the Internet.

google-autocomplete-every-state

After a quick Google search for “median household income by state,” I found that Kentucky is just 4th from the lowest income.  I can see why that might make someone think Kentucky is poor.  However there is a flaw in that idea; the cost of living isn’t the same everywhere.  In fact, Kentucky has the 4th lowest cost of living in the United States.  I’ll spare you the math but you can take a look if you’re interested.

All you need to know to understand the chart below is that it’s the median income with cost of living factored in.  The results when you factor in the cost of living get mixed around a bit, but West Virginia and Mississippi are still firmly in our bottom four.  The new loser is Hawaii, tumbling all the way from the 8th highest median income down to #50 due to the extremely high cost of living.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, Virginia takes the lead, climbing from 7th place to 1st place due to a lower cost of living and higher median income.

Adjusted Median Income

So it boils down to people comparing Apples to Oranges.  When was the last time you heard someone say New York or Hawaii are poor states?  Yet, while someone who lives there might have 10-20k more on their paycheck each year than someone living in Kentucky, due to the higher cost of living, they can buy fewer goods and services than the Kentuckian.  Maybe the question everyone should be asking instead is, “Why is it so awesome to live in Kentucky?”

I just got this in an email and think it’s a pretty good solution to our current economic problems. If you’ve read any of Dave Ramsey‘s Books you’ll know he’s extremely anti debt. Debt of any kind, even school loans, the only exception is a mortgage. So take a look and if you like his solution follow the few steps below to inform your Representatives and Congressman.

We are at a crucial time in our country’s financial history. Congress defeated the $700 billion bailout plan on Monday. However, they are revising it and trying to push it through again. I’m supporting an alternative plan that will keep our nation from going even deeper in debt, and I’ve been on TV and radio all week telling people about it.

We need everyone’s help!

3 Steps to Change the Nation's Future

Follow the instructions below. Together we can change history.

Pray For Your Leaders

Pray for them to resist a spirit of FEAR and to embrace WISDOM. Even if you don’t like them or agree with them, pray for them and tell them you are praying for them. There is a spirit over this problem that must be broken. Also, most of the media personalities are afraid as well and that is affecting their reporting. Pray for fear to be removed from them; they are making this worse.

Send the Common Sense Fix

Send The Common Sense Fix to your Representatives and Senators and tell them how you expect them to vote, and that if they put this nation in $700 billion of debt, that you will vote them out. It’s their job to listen to us! (Whichever presidential candidate or political party that champions this plan from their leadership down will likely become the next president. That is because this plan fixes the crisis while going along with the wishes of the vast majority of Americans.)

  1. First, read this page (PDF)
  2. Next, copy the info on this page (text file)
  3. Send it to your Senators and representatives by copying and pasting the text in the web form you’re sent to.

*Note: If their websites are down, that means we’re making a difference! Keep refreshing the page until you get through. You can also go through Congress.org, though we don’t endorse this site.

Tell Others

Forward this email to everyone in your address book and tell them to urgently follow these 3 steps TODAY. The more people we have supporting this and contacting their elected leaders, the more likely we can turn our economy around!

Iraq DownedI was talking with Trever in the office the other day about how much the war was costing the U.S. I made the comment that it isn’t really all that bad yet even with our $4/gallon gas compared to World War II when they had all kinds of rations and scrap drives to help the war effort. Which brought up the question just how much Iraq is costing in comparison to other wars in recent history.

War Year of dollar figures Cost
U.S. Nuclear Program 2005 $5.8 Trillion
World War II 2003 $4.7 trillion
Vietnam 2005 $623 billion
WWI 2005 $613 Billion
Iraq War – As of March 2008 2008 $501 billion

When you look at it in comparision we still have a extremely long way to go till Iraq is even close to World War 2. There is at least another year before we catch up to even World War 1 (aka the war to end all wars) with Iraq currently costing 2 billion a week.