Stimulus Package
All this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"... A billion dollars... A hundred billion dollars... Eight hundred billion dollars... One TRILLION dollars... What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchupout for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like. We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go. A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun. Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it. While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet... And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere... Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros. You ready for this? It's pretty surprising. Go ahead... Scroll down... Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars... Notice those pallets are double stacked. So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
...and remember those are $100 bills.
Posts
3 I love Comments!!:
I've always been amazed that people can actually throw around dollar amounts that big like it's no big deal! I could think of tons of (useful) things to do with a trillion dollars! And none of them would include bailing out people who are idiots.
When you see it like this, it really hits home wxactly how much they ar talking.
Great job.
Another way to put it is that
a million seconds ago it was two weeks ago (12 days)
A billion seconds ago it was 1978 (31.7 years ago)
A trillions seconds ago it was prehistoric times (31,688 years)
Post a Comment