As I was having my first cup of coffee this morning I ran across this very interesting article Eric Torbenson, staff writer for the Dallas Morning News Business section, wrote on the Meaning of ‘$1 Trillion’.
I remember when I was in elementary school I was introduced to what a Million was and then in Junior (now knows to you kiddo’s as Middle School) High School the realities of a Billion. Trillion was at that time a multiple choice question answer in my High School economics class.
Trillion was a word that even Carl Sagan would only use sparingly and as a last resort after he would blurt out his infamous…“Baaaaillions and Baaillions” phrase he used to describe how many stars were in the sky. Even Mr Sagan used knew nobody could comprehend the value of Trillion.
Now we federal government economist using terms like ‘$6 Trillion’ like it was the balance in their personal checking account…which, knowing how the bailout is going, could be.
But I digress..the point is..Mr Torbenson brought up some good analogies of how BIG 1 Trillion is in an effort to bring its value into a scope of comprehension. I thought I would provide some of those thoughts here for my fans, but make sure you check out Eric’s article since it was well done and was placed on the Front Page of Today’s Business Section.
Sets start small and look at a million and how big it is…did you know:
A million seconds ago equals 12 days ago????
A billion seconds ago was 1959!!!!
A Trillion Seconds ago –31,688 years ago– Neanderthals were stalking around the plains of Europe!!!
OK, lets crank it up a little…did you know:
That one trillion miles is roughly the distance of 350 trips from Earth to Pluto..we have not even been there once..can you even image that distance?
Now here is the Nose Bleed realities of $1 Trillion..did you know:
That $1 Trillion could pave the entire US Interstate Highway system with 23.5 karat gold leaf???????
OK, this enough and is where I can truly say..
Give Me a Friggin Break!
Enjoy Eric’s article and let me know how I can help.
