What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
Let's start with a stack of one million dollars.
(I'm told I need several stacks like this one in order to retire.)
Now think about some of the figures we've heard lately.
Annual Government spending for 2007 was just under $3 trillion. Revenue was $2.5 trillion. Budget deficit therefore was 1/2 a trillion dollars.
The U.S. GDP in 2007 was $14 trillion. In 2008, it was just over $14.5 trillion.
At the end of 2007, the national debt was $9.3 trillion. On Sept. 30, 2008 (the end of the fiscal year) it was just over $10 trillion.
In the last half of 2008, government spending for bailouts and other guarantees related to the financial crisis resulted in new debt and obligations of an additional $8.7 trillion.
Keep in mind what that million dollar bundle looks like.
And now take a peek at one trillion dollars.
Do you see the guy standing in the left-hand corner?
Now imagine 9 more of these.
What the heck do we think we are doing?!
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3 comments:
Wow!
wish I could be more insightful - but that's all I got
That's ok Doug. Save your efforts for more of those great insights you've been posting over at Rational Capitalist!
Good one, but Beth but wouldn't you say, thinking is the one thing that is not happening.
Have you considered how well your example works in reverse? As in parts per trillion in contaminants with respect to pollution.
gary seinen
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