One TRILLION Dollars

If you listen to any news station, radio, television, anything news, you would have had to heard about our national debt and how we need to stop it, yada-yada.  I think all of us are a bit tired of hearing it and we really begin to turn a deaf ear to the matter.  One reason I think we do this is because we really have a hard time, as humans, understanding things we can't see.  We just don't have the ability to "picture" some things in our mind...we need to see them.  Now granted, there are a few people (usually of the engineering type) who have this uncanny ability to see figures in picture form, but most of us do not.  I for one, am one of those.  Those who do not.  So I saw this interesting pictorial and had to share it.  It really helped me to understand how much money a Trillion Dollars is.

We hear our legislators throwing around figures here and there regarding the "stimulus package" and "bailouts" and I think we are missing the urgency of the matter.  Take a minute with me and lets "look" at the information.

So most of us have, at least seen a $100 dollar bill.  To own one and carry it in your wallet is a treat.  We feel "rich" to have one in our possession, right?  We also are a bit careful about what we will cash it in for.  We think twice when we have such a nice piece of  cash in our pocket that is so significant. 

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So, with this as our standard, we will begin. A packet of one hundred $100 bills ($10,000) is less than 1/2" thick and could easily fit in your pocket.  Most of us have never carried this much cash and those of us who have only have done so to carry to go and purchase something like a car or home.

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The next amount we will look at is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000).  This amount is a bit larger to carry but it still could easily fit into a paper grocery bag.  I think most of us have only seen this much money when we have watched the Armored trucks going in and out of stores or banks.  Possibly in a Hollywood movie.  To get a grasp on this amount, see the graphic below.

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Now, our next figure is a bit bigger.  We are going to look at what a $100 million dollars (1,000 $1,000's) looks like.  This image is a bit more impressive and as you can see, it fits nicely on a standard wooden pallet.

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So as these figures are growing, so is our image.  Next, we have $1 BILLION Dollars.  A billion dollars (1 million $1,000's) is ... are you ready?  Yes, these are all on pallets!

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Ok, so now that you are beginning to see the size of these numbers.  We will put the number of ONE TRILLION DOLLARS into our scale.  This is a number that is so large it is followed by 12 zeros.  It is a million $1 million's or a 1,000 $billions.  Does your head hurt yet?  Let's look at it...are you ready?



It is a bit surprising....


Remember to see the man on the left corner for size comparison....

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Notice these pallets are DOUBLE-stacked - 50 across by 100 back!  So the next time you hear someone tossing around numbers like a "trillion dollars" you will have a great image of what that looks like.

So, now that you have these basic figures burned into your memory, let's apply them to something real, like our National Dept!  You thought we were done with the last image?  Not exactly.  As of March 2009 the National Dept was $11 TRILLION dollars.  Now this is almost two years ago but the image I have found was from this date.  Currently, (as of December 31, 2010) the national dept was $14.03 trillion....so add another 3 Trillion to the image below and you will see our National Dept as represented in $100 dollar bills:

 Don't forget to see the man in the left corner for size comparison!  Scared yet?  We NEED to STOP the spending in our government!

Images from: Pagetuter.com

Step by Step Calculatons: Pagetutor Calculations

Wikipedia:  National Dept