The National Debt in One Picture

Heritage Foundation ^ | 1/6/2014 | Kelsey Harris

[IbJensen]

Congress is beginning its new year with a budget deal that busts right through “caps” it was supposed to have on spending. At Heritage, we want to hold Congress accountable for its tax-and-spend ways, even as Members claim there’s no room to cut.

A good place to start is understanding the mountain of debt Americans are already under. Check out and share our infographic below that puts it in perspective.

[Graewoulf]

That is hard for me to to visualize in inches or feet.

How many miles is that?

[Bubba_Leroy]

I come out with 1,153,724.75 miles.

17,000,000,000,000 x 0.0043 = 73,100,000,000 inches.

73,100,000,000 / 12 = 6,091,666.666.67 feet.

6,091,666.666.67 / 5,280 = 1,153,724.75 miles.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Correction. That was the height on $1 bills. If you use $100 bills it is only 11,537.25 miles.

[TangledUpInBlue]

I’ll post the other side though... I’ll never forget my Banking 101 class way back when.

Remember, the National Debt, despite that it’s rising, is NOT the “net” debt. The National Debt is partially offset by the national credit. People owe us money too.

The more significant issue is the Budget Deficit. That’s money being spent that we don’t have. So then they go borrow it or have to print it. Eventually it ends up as part of the debt. But still it’s offset.

Kill the Budget deficits, you’ll kill the National Debt.

[IncPen]

ping

[Graewoulf]

” - - - 17,000,000,000,000 x 0.0043 = 73,100,000,000 inches. - - - “

Hmmmmmm - - - ?

That might do for a stack of ONE dollar bills, but the question was:

“What would be the depth of the hole dug into the Earth to bury a single stack of ONE HUNDRED dollar bills whose total value was 17 Trillion Dollars?”

Clue # 4:

At the Earth’s equator, the diameter of the Earth is as big as it gets: (24, 902 miles/ pi = 7,926.552786 miles.

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

Not possible you would dig thru the earth and into space. How many angels can fit on the head of a needle?

[Yosemitest]

100 dollar bill is 0.0043 inches

100,000 is 4.3 inches.

1,000,000 is 43 inches

1,000,000,000 (1 Billion) is 43,000 inches

1,000,000,000,000 (1 Trillion) is 43,000,000 inches

17,000,000,000,000 17 Trillion is 731,000,000 inches

1 mile = 63,360 inches or 5280 feet

17 trillion dollars in 100 dollar bills equals 11,537.247474747474 miles

or 11,537 miles and 15,679.99999995264 inches

or 11,537 miles 1,306 feet 6 and .99999999999996 inches

But the earth is only at the equator is 7,926.28 miles miles in diameter and from pole to pole is only 7,899.80 miles.

So like I said before, the Earth isn't "Thick" enough.
It would require you to dig through 1.4555630131663277 earths.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

bkmk

[SunkenCiv]

Kobe Bryant’s Exhibit A in income inequality.

[SunkenCiv]

Nice!

[VideoDoctor]

The ONLY spending language that Wash D.C knows is... “Too much is NOT enough.”

[IbJensen]

Surely you don’t think they’ve gone too far.