What does one
TRILLION dollars look like?
All
this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"...
A billion dollars...
A hundred billion dollars...
Eight hundred billion dollars...
One TRILLION dollars...
What
does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so
many doggie treats,
so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get
a sense of what exactly a trillion
dollars looks like.
We'll
start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest
everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make
friends wherever they go.
A
packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains
$10,000. Fits in your pocket easily
and is more than enough for week or two of
shamefully decadent fun.
Believe
it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of
$10,000). You could stuff that
into a grocery bag and walk around with it.
While
a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more
respectable.
It fits neatly on a standard pallet...
And
$1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...
Next
we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so
much about.
What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a
thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.
You
ready for this?
It's
pretty surprising.
Go
ahead...
Scroll down...
Ladies
and gentlemen... I give you $1
trillion dollars...
(And notice those pallets are double
stacked.)
So
the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion
dollars"... that's what they're talking about.