"A billion here, a billion there, and...

[Black Bart]

pretty soon you're talking real money." This is the famous quote made back in the sixties and generally attributed (erroneously says Wiki) to the late Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois. After stumbling across the interesting website below, it seems to me the quotation should be updated to "A trillion here, a trillion there..."

[/url]http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

Now I see why all those politicians are so frightened about the national debt (I am too). The billion dollar stack looked manageable, but that last one gives a startling perspective into the magnitude of such staggering amounts (never mind even thinking about the interest).

[Bees Knees]

How long before people start using the term “quadrillion.” That’s a thousand trillion. It’s easier to accept when you put a name to it, rather than say it with a 1 followed by so many zeros.


1 = one
10 = ten
100 = hundred
1,000 = thousand
1,000,000 = million
1,000,000,000 = billion
1,000,000,000,000 = trillion
1,000,000,000,000,000 = quadrillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = quintillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = sextillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = septillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = octillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = nonillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = decillion

It does go on. A decillion, as illustrated above is a 1 followed by 33 zeros. A centillion is a 1 followed by 303 zeros.

You also have a Googol which is 10 to the 100th power, and a Googolplex which is 10 to the Googol power.

[Gary2]

Sometimes it helps to scale things. The Congressional Budget Office recently reported a current deficit estimate of $642 billion. Google reports a current US population of 313.9 million.

That comes to a little over $2,000 per person. That's a lot of money for a lot of people (especially since the population estimate includes infants and children), but it's not as scary.

But largely it shows that it's easy to play games with numbers to produce emotional reactions that may or may not be useful for making rational decisions.

[Black Bart]

No problems, eh?

Sometimes it helps to scale things. The Congressional Budget Office recently reported a current deficit estimate of $642 billion. Google reports a current US population of 313.9 million.

That comes to a little over $2,000 per person. That's a lot of money for a lot of people (especially since the population estimate includes infants and children), but it's not as scary.

You've got me there - I really don't know anything about economics (Keynesian or otherwise), but isn't that $642 billion just for this year instead of the accumulated total which I understand is about 17 of those big stacks? Too, I don't have much faith that 47% of the population will pay their part (never mind the kids).

But largely it shows that it's easy to play games with numbers to produce emotional reactions that may or may not be useful for making rational decisions.

You may be right -- Jay Carney says the same thing.

[Roberts]

Yes, $642 billion is just this year.

The overall national debt is $52,986.40 per person (including infants, children, retired folks, unemployed). It always makes people feel wealthier than they are as they spend the proceeds of debt. It's only when you begin paying it back you start feeling how poor you really are. Yes I know, we'll never pay it back.

reading about this FISA court / phone record keeping nightmare - think I'm going to be sick. The only thing in Washington that can achieve bi-partisan support is how best to go about screwing over the American people. Disgusting.

[Black Bart]

The Walking Debt!

I offer my apologies in advance:

http://twitter.com/SaintRPh/status/315513620991725568/photo/1

Yes, yes, I know it's political, but it is funny and it's Sunday (on which Brad occasionally grants us a little leeway re controversial stuff), and it's slow today, and, besides, I couldn't resist (if Gary wants to post one about paranoid yea-hoos, I'm fine with that and promise to laugh).





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