The “DEBT CLOCK” link has been posted on this website for many years because I believe it is extremely relevant to the health, future direction and perhaps even the survival of our country. Others disagree and believe it should merely be acknowledged and accepted as the cost of doing business and continuing to increase it the only way to proceed. What do you think?
How many times have you heard comments concerning the “seventeen trillion dollar debt”? Or “17 trillion”, “almost 17 trillion”, “about 17 trillion”, “approximately 17 trillion”, etc….?
WELL, WE’VE ACHIEVED THE NUMBER…
17 TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT !
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Yup, it’s a fact now. Not just an approximate. Now we will hear: “over seventeen trillion dollars in debt”, “past 17 trillion”, “greater than 17 trillion”, etc.
What does this number really mean to people? News stories and reports throw around “millions”, “billions”, and “trillions” like there is no real difference. We have become numb regarding numbers and their significance.
Check out the following graphically illustrated information using hundred dollar bills and the difference in these numbers from the book “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do” The absurdity of consensual crimes in a free society by Peter McWilliams, Prelude Press 1993:
A million dollars in hundred dollar bills forms a single stack approximately three feet high.
A billion dollars is a single stack twice as high as the Empire State Building.
A trillion dollars is a single stack 570 miles high. It reaches the threshold of outer space.
If a million dollars in hundred dollar bills were laid end to end, they would stretch approximately 97 miles – roughly the distance from New York to Philadelphia.
One billion dollars laid end to end would circle the globe at the equator nearly four times; alternatively, they could go two-fifths of the distance to the moon.
One trillion dollars in one hundred dollar bills, laid end to end, would circle the equator 3,900 times. Or, if you don’t want to go around the world that many times, one trillion dollars in hundred dollar bills, laid end to end, would extend from the earth to the sun, and, once there, you would still have $41 billion to burn.
One last example: if you had a million dollars, and spent $1,000 per day, it would take you 2,737 years, 10 months and 1 week to run out of money. (That last week would probably be fairly stressful.)
If you had a trillion dollars and spent $1,000 a day, you would be destitute in 2,739,726 years (and some change, but, as with the national debt, who’s counting?).
[Inside book cover comment:
“Everything used in this book is from public sources. The stuff that’s available publicly is far more frightening than a lot of people realize.”
TOM CLANCY]
My best to you and yours, Lew
