Trillion Dollars, Baby

Jeff Winkler | April 1, 2009

Another news story, another mention of a trillion–or more–dollars. If it's difficult to even comprehend laying "one trillion dollar bills end to end" so that it "reaches the sun," don't worry.

Pagetutor.com has a wonderful visual of what a trillion dollars actually looks like. It's reminiscent of museum plaques comparing man to various Jurassic reptiles. Check out the fun explainer here. If time is money, scroll down for the big picture (at the bottom left corner is our sample man):

Via Unemploymentality

Associate Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward blogged another easy way to think of a trillion dollars.

Comments

Brett Stevens|4.1.09 @ 5:36PM|#

Here's another way to think of a trillion dollars:

Enough cash to invent cold fusion. LOL what we miss.

anon|4.1.09 @ 5:37PM|#

I wonder if the increasing popularity of aids such as this, helping people wrap their minds around such large numbers, is a serious indicator of coming hyperinflation...

Ska|4.1.09 @ 5:42PM|#

A regular commentor here at H&R had posted this before, and I have been sending that little explanation to a few people. Still not exactly comprehendable, but it's an improvement from seeing the word trillion. Seeing it numerically (1,000,000,000,000) makes a bigger impression than just reading/hearing the word.

Mike M.|4.1.09 @ 5:45PM|#

Our national debt has gone up half a trillion dollars in just the ten weeks since Obama took office: an incredible rate of more than seven billion dollars a day.

At that rate, it will go up more than five trillion dollars just in the first two years of his term alone!

lunchstealer|4.1.09 @ 5:47PM|#

Yeah, but wouldn't that be better if they showed the stacks of money relative to a velociraptor?

That's a far more important comparison.

|4.1.09 @ 5:48PM|#

By my calculations, a trillion dollars laid end to end would extend several million miles further than one A.U. A dollar is 6.14 inches long. Working the math, I come up with 96,906,565.66 miles. One A.U. is around 93 million miles.

It would take considerably less than $1 trillion to develop fusion power. In fact, when you start thinking about this, it's really distressing. I'd rather the money stayed in private hands, but if the government simply must spend trillions, why not on practical science and technology? It'd pay a hell of a lot better dividends than the crap they're actually spending it on. And, of course, with major technological breakthroughs on that scale, we'd take a huge leap ahead of our competition.

|4.1.09 @ 5:54PM|#

Oh, I should explain. The linked article says the following: "Lay one trillion one dollar bills end to end, and the line almost reaches the sun." I guess that might be right if you're three million miles further from the sun than the Earth or if I messed up the math.

Warty|4.1.09 @ 6:00PM|#

I can't wait till I'm a trillionaire.

|4.1.09 @ 6:02PM|#

In Zimbabwe, you already are.

|4.1.09 @ 6:02PM|#

Bush ran the national debt from $5 to $11 trillion.

On a % basis Obama is just a piker.

¢|4.1.09 @ 6:08PM|#

If time is money

It is, in the sense that the work-lifetimes of about a gigafuckload of those tiny dudes did nothing but get chucked in that pile.

|4.1.09 @ 6:29PM|#

"It's enough to fill the Grand Canyon two-fifths of the way up. That may not sound like much, but keep in mind it is a VERY big canyon."

Jeff P|4.1.09 @ 6:31PM|#

I got it! Robbie Kenivel jumps a trillion dollars in bailout money. In a closed auto-factory, no less.

|4.1.09 @ 6:36PM|#

I'd like to build a house out of a trillion dollars. Whenever I need some money, I just pull it off!

ed|4.1.09 @ 6:42PM|#

At that rate, it will go up more than five trillion dollars just in the first two years

Right, and A-Rod, at his current rate, will hit 952 home runs.

Nobody is examining the real cause of this current fiasco, namely: an ethical cultural meltdown. When a sizeable percentage of any nation's citizens discards ethics in pursuit of temporary, feel-good possessions, an economic collapse must inevitably follow. America is abhorrent to serious introspection. We'd much rather blame somebody else for our shortcomings.

|4.1.09 @ 6:46PM|#

Threadjack - "Who is John Galt" sign at G20 protests (and a good photo series) here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/apr/01/g20-protest?picture=345352268

|4.1.09 @ 6:48PM|#

So Zimbabwe is being efficient by letting you keep a few quadrillion in your wallet.

If you can afford a wallet.

Any chance we can see a trillion dollars as a sack of pennies?

The simple reality is that the human mind is mind to understand such numbers. That is how they can do these things without the people grabbing their pitchforks.

|4.1.09 @ 6:50PM|#

Glenn Beck already showed the size of a stack of 1 Trillion dollars about 2 weeks ago.

MNG|4.1.09 @ 6:55PM|#

"Glenn Beck already showed the size of a stack of 1 Trillion dollars about 2 weeks ago."

I remember when he did the same to illustrate the expenses of the Iraq debacle.

Except that he didn't, because he's a shill and I don't remember watching him because I'm not a masochistic fool.

dairydog91|4.1.09 @ 6:55PM|#

Assuming that each porno DVD costs $20 bucks, and that each DVD contains an hour and a half of "the good stuff", 1 Trillion Dollars would purchase enough porn to watch new stuff continuously, 24/7, for approximately 6.5 million years.

Mike M.|4.1.09 @ 7:04PM|#

At that rate, it will go up more than five trillion dollars just in the first two years

Right, and A-Rod, at his current rate, will hit 952 home runs.

Right, my ass. Someone doesn't want to pay much attention to what the hell is going on.

By his own admission, his budget deficit is going to be almost two trillion over the next fiscal year, and that's using fairly rosy economic numbers. It also doesn't include things like bailouts, more money that will almost certainly be needed to get bank credit flowing again, and future "stimulus packages".

|4.1.09 @ 7:05PM|#

MNG, Beck is a shill for... what thing?

MNG|4.1.09 @ 7:06PM|#

Conservatives, duh.

hmm|4.1.09 @ 7:08PM|#

That's the largest stack of toilet paper or cooking fuel I have seen in a a while.

Jordan|4.1.09 @ 7:09PM|#

Bush ran the national debt from $5 to $11 trillion.

On a % basis Obama is just a piker.

Oh well if Bush did it then I guess it's okay.

|4.1.09 @ 7:16PM|#

Ed,
Nobody is examining the real cause of this current fiasco, namely: an ethical cultural meltdown. When a [sizable] percentage of any nation's citizens discards ethics in pursuit of temporary, feel-good possessions, an economic collapse must inevitably follow.

Ed, I see no connection between forsaking ethics and buying stuff. You will have to explain that one.

|4.1.09 @ 7:17PM|#

MNG,
Conservatives, duh.

That's too vague. What do you mean by being a shill for conservatives?

|4.1.09 @ 7:20PM|#

Except that he didn't, because he's a shill and I don't remember watching him because I'm not a masochistic fool.

You're a masochistic sage, and thus prefer Rachel Maddow. No?

Suki|4.1.09 @ 7:23PM|#

Except that he didn't, because he's a shill and I don't remember watching him because I'm not a masochistic fool.

It was once funny hearing people exclaim expertise* in things they never bothered** to examine.

After growing up it is just noise.

*"Except that he didn't, because he's a shill"
**"I don't remember watching him"

|4.1.09 @ 7:49PM|#

dairydog91's calculation is so win.

|4.1.09 @ 7:54PM|#

Here's how to understand a trillion dollars. It is $3290 for each American.

Of course a lot of American will get more than that amount distributed to them so they are supporters. Also, a lot of Americans will, personally, pay a lot less than an equal share of that in taxes so their opposition is less.

|4.1.09 @ 8:15PM|#

I'd like to build a house out of a trillion dollars. Whenever I need some money, I just pull it off!

McGuires in Pensacola has over 500,000 one-dollar bills hanging from the ceilings and stapled to the walls. Only a fraction of a trillion but it's still kinda awesome to see.

|4.1.09 @ 9:59PM|#

Oh well if Bush did it then I guess it's okay.

A big spending conservative is like a wife without a vagina.

Fucking worthless.

Thanks for the illustration.

Jordan|4.1.09 @ 10:27PM|#

A big spending conservative is like a wife without a vagina.

Fucking worthless.

Thanks for the illustration.

Are you high or something? You seem to be arguing with the libertarian in your head. Do you see anyone here defending Dubya?

Kolohe|4.1.09 @ 10:49PM|#

A big spending conservative is like a wife without a vagina.

Doesn't Andy Sullivan actually have one of these?

Kolohe|4.1.09 @ 10:54PM|#

nevermind, he calls his spouse his 'husband' I'd thought for some reason he refered to him as his 'wife.'

</|4.1.09 @ 10:54PM|#

Associate Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward

Long past time for her to be Seniot Editor

Promote the young lady.

Brett Stevens|4.2.09 @ 2:54AM|#

"When a [sizable] percentage of any nation's citizens discards ethics in pursuit of temporary, feel-good possessions, an economic collapse must inevitably follow."

Sounds like Aldous Huxley.

|4.2.09 @ 10:10AM|#

Any chance we can see a trillion dollars as a sack of pennies?

I calculate 1 trillion dollars in pennies would use up nearly 57% of the worlds known reserves of zinc. (which is about 460 million tons, and assuming pennies weigh 2.5 grams and are 95% zinc, as they have been since 1986)

|4.2.09 @ 10:11AM|#

Any chance we can see a trillion dollars as a sack of pennies?

I calculate 1 trillion dollars in pennies would use up nearly 57% of the worlds known reserves of zinc. (which is about 460 million tons, and assuming pennies weigh 2.5 grams and are 95% zinc, as they have been since 1986)

damn close tags...

|4.2.09 @ 11:24AM|#

Ed, I see no connection between forsaking ethics and buying stuff.

Try adding "that you can't afford" to the end of that sentence and see if it helps.

shrike, are you seriously arguing that Obama hasn't greatly accelerated our debt accumulation? Seriously?

And when talking about "spending," lets not forget to include the disguised spending built into our inflationary monetary policy. At some point, the Fed printing more money is equivalent, in the long run, to Congress spending that money.

What with all the bailouts, stimulus spending, and what-not, I believe we have already committed almost an entire year's GDP to trying to "cure" this recession.

|4.6.09 @ 9:24AM|#

Tax on the mainland UK is too high compared to other Anglo Saxon economies. In this society hard work is punished while if one is on dole money than one is pampered beyond all reasonable expediences. It is no wonder than that people try to take their hard earned money offshore. Britain must cut taxes and spending and let people have what they deserve.

http://real-politique.blogspot.com

By Sikander Hayat