Good morning & happy Monday!
“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
– Evertt Dirksen, U.S. Senator 1896-1969
I know that we live in a stressful time … in fairness, when do we ever think the present is easy, but I digress … so I thought today we might try to have a little fun with numbers that our politicians throw around like candy on Halloween.
I’m a numbers guy. I love numbers! But I fully understand that numbers can get overwhelming.
Our politicians throw out numbers like $435 million, $6.2 billion, and $1.5 trillion with very little concern. At some point all these figures seem so huge that they are staggering and we as the public can just tune them out.
So today, I would like to compare the difference between a million, a billion, and a trillion:
- A Million (1,000,000):
Time: A million seconds from now it will be evening on Friday, April 18th (assuming you are reading this on Monday morning). 1 million seconds = 11½ days. - Miles: A million miles is like driving from New York to Los Angeles and back… about 178 times.
- $100 bills: if you stacked $100 bills on top of each other a million dollars would be 3.58 feet tall … about the height of a small child or a kitchen counter. (A $100 bills thickness is 0.0043 inches.)
- Purchasing power: A million bucks buys you a nice house in most places … or a closet in San Francisco. 😉 Maybe a yacht if you’re into sailing the 7 seas. 😊
- A Billion (1,000,000,000):
Time: A billion seconds from now we will be preparing for Thanksgiving … in 2056! I’ll be approaching my 77th birthday and my 5-year granddaughter will be 37 years old. 1 billion seconds = 31.7 years. - Miles: A billion miles is like circling Earth’s equator 40,075 times (Earth’s circumference is ~24,901 miles).
- $100 bills: if you stacked $100 bills on top of each other a billion dollars would be 3,583.33 feet tall … more than twice as tall as the Empire State building.
- Purchasing power: A billion dollars gets you a private island, a fleet of supercars, or about 3,333 average U.S. homes.
- A Trillion (1,000,000,000,000):
Time: A trillion seconds from now the year will be 33,734! That’s 31,709 years from now! I hate to be the barer of bad news, but I’m pretty sure no one reading this will be on the earth in a trillion seconds. 😉 Sorry to bring such harsh news on a Monday morning. LOL. - Miles: A trillion miles is 40 million laps around Earth … or about 2,668 round trips to the sun.
- $100 bills: if you stacked $100 bills on top of each other a trillion dollars would be 3,583,333.33 feet tall … that’s just over 678 miles! I just played with Google maps for a few minutes … that’s like driving from my office in Winter Haven, FL to Knoxville, TN (671 miles) on $100 bills stacked on top of each other!
- Purchasing power: A trillion bucks? You could buy every NFL team, every Starbucks on Earth, and still have change for a small country … don’t tell Donald Trump. 😉
A fascinating, and scary, website is www.usdebtclock.org. Here you can see a running tally of the U.S. debt, that is currently over $36 trillion!
Again, going back to our $100 bills stacked on top of each other example … $36 trillion equals 24,891 miles! Back to Google maps … that’s like driving on $100 bills stacked on top of each other from Miami to Seattle and back 3 times with enough left over for round trip from my office in Winter Haven to Washington D.C.
The United States federal government has spent over $7 trillion of taxpayer dollars (and the country’s credit card) so far, this fiscal year, which runs from October 1st – September 30th of every year. The problem is revenue has been just over $5 trillion, so our government has a spending problem … and unfortunately it does not appear to be interested in rehab.
That current $36 something trillion national debt equates to over $107,227 for every man, woman, and child in the country. If you break that down to taxpayers only, that becomes over $323,000 per taxpayer.
These are staggering figures, and I just don’t want us to get lost in thinking that a million, billion, or trillion are close … they are anything but!
So, next time someone tosses around “trillion” like it’s pocket change, remind them it’s not just “a lot” … it’s a staggering difference!!!
Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, we all must encourage / challenge / demand that our politicians use our tax money wisely. But, since wisdom seems to have escaped the brains of politicians, I will instead spend my energy on instilling wisdom into you. 😊 I have every bit of confidence that my client base is smarter than Washington politicians! 😉
I hope you have found this informative, and maybe even interesting.
If it took you 3 ½ minutes to read this email, the federal government has spent another $21 million dollars (current spend rate is $6 million per minute) just since you started reading this!
Please never hesitate to reach out if there is anything my team or I can do so support you along your journey.
Make it a great week ahead.