Posted on 01/06/2011 6:42:52 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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 Sketchup out 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.
...and remember those are $100 bills.
So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.
* Step by step calculations & dimensions are here for those who may be interested.
* You may also be interested to see the U.S. National Debt in $100 dollar bills.
So here you go, the U.S. National Debt in $100 dollar bills...
I cannot vouch for the calculations, but what difference does it make? We’re doomed.
/johnny
That’s several times bigger than my house.
So are our children...and their children...and THEIR children.
Thanks for nothing, Barry, Nancy and Harry.
“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.”
I don’t believe it. Please send me the money and a grocery bag and I’ll see if I really can walk around with it... :)
That seems to imply that some libs do have a clue?
;)
Looks bogus to me, but I’ve seen this before and I think it was 1,000 dollar bills.
Look at the 3rd image. That is NOT 100 packets of $100 bills. It looks more like about 5 packets.
BTW, one reason the government stopped printing $500 and $1000 bills is so large sums of money will be more detectable and harder to transport clandestinely. Or so I heard.
If the US debt was only one trillion dollars, and we repaid it at the tune of $1.00 per second...
It would take us 31,688 years to pay off the debt.
http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Taxes/million.htm
My favorite bits of dialogue from that movie:
Alfred Pennyworth: A long time ago, I was in Burma, my friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never found anyone who traded with him. One day I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.
Bruce Wayne: Then why steal them?
Alfred Pennyworth: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
A bit off topic, but as an example of scale, the human body has been estimated to have somewhere around 50-75 trillion cells.
One trillion seconds ago no human civilization had written language.
One trillion seconds is more than 32,000 years.
The American government is currently more than $14 trillion in debt.
No wonder the American dollar is worth 1/1400 of an ounce of gold.
A few months ago a writer to the St. Pete Times (FL) suggested a fix to the nation’s unemployment and economy woes. Give the 40 million people that are age 50 and above a million dollars with the stipulation that they quit their jobs, buy a car from Detroit and pay off their mortgage. A friend forwarded this to me saying this could be the end of our problems. I shot back, “did you do the math?” He said that it was a $400 billion dollar cost. I corrected him that no, it was $40 TRILLION and to cover the cost (by printing more money), the car alone would cost $1 million. He sheepishly replied that his calculator did not have enough zeros.
“Off the top of my head, I’m calculating that you can fit $2.4 billion on one of these:”
And how many of those left Iraq in 2003?
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