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Infomercials have seeped into all aspects of our lives.  Some will even use fake news reports to suck us in to believe what we're seeing is an actual news story.

Those late night spots are also notorious for breaking down the cost of the product in the most basic of ways.  That's been slipping into government more and more.

It's not necessarily a bad thing.  We all understands the price of something if we break it down to the most basic sense.

This week at two public forums where Mayor Suttle and his staff shed light on the city's 2011 Budget proposal, we saw PowerPoint slides pointing out the cost of all city services.

Public works posted a number regarding monthly per capita cost as $2.95.  Police -- $19.57.  Fire -- $12.41.

Viewers commented that the individual increases didn't seem like much, or the cost, until you start adding everything together -- and from every public body during tough economic times.

One person jokingly referred to the figures on the screen and the pitch that followed as akin to the commercials asking us to help feed hungry people overseas -- adding that maybe citizens should get a photo of a fire truck or police car or snowplow in return for our money.

He went on to say that we could even write letters to the items and ask for progress updates.