We hear a lot of talk these days about a TRILLION dollars. Someone finally put it in perspective.
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...
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.
You ready for this?
It's pretty surprising.
Go ahead...
Scroll down..Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...
Scroll down..Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...
(And 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.
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2 comments:
Which looks great, until your realize that the U.S. economy is 13 times larger than the final picture.
And that the bill for the last 6 years of the Iraq war, at over $600 billion makes up more than half of the final picture.
You're gonna need a lot of shrink wrap to fit that in the back of a C-130.
And if you were to take *three to five* of those groupings of pallets, you would get what Joseph Stiglitz estimated the Iraq war would cost by the end. Not that I think giving it to the bankers is great, but as long as we're putting things in perspective...
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