What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
With the stimulus package, the US debt and the war in Iraq, we have entered the era of trillion numbers.
Trillion. That is a million times a million. A thousand billion. A one followed by 12 zeros. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000.
So... how does a trillion dollars look like?
Well, in true dimensions, here is a million dollars in $100 dollar bills:
Pretty un-impressive, I think. Fits in my lunch bag. One million. Phew. Peanuts.
But here is what one trillion looks like:
NOW we're talking....
(Note the guy is still standing on the left, next to the money heap.)
Do you understand now in how much trouble the US economy is? With a bailout package of 8.5 trillion. With the national debt going over 10 trillion? (and that was before the current crisis and bailout...
Oh and what it means when people say the war in Iraq costs 3 trillion?
A BIG thank you to PageTutor, check out his full post for the steps from one dollar to 1 trillion.
Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
1 comments:
Just out of interest, what means more to the American people...winning the so-called 'War on Terror' and it's underlying principles, or the amount it will cost to do so?
Obviously, something needed to be done after the awful events on 9/11, but was the then administrations response a gross miscalculation, given that we're nearly 9 years on and still bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bin Laden is still on the loose, and now Iran is talking tough?
Surely the economics say that further military actions in that region will eventually cripple an already precarious US economy (whats left of it).
Post a Comment