what's so big about a trillion?
What Does a “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 here’ s what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.
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We’ll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them.
A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2 thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is a great start to a wonderful vacation.
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. Notice those pallets are double stacked. …and remember those are $100 bills.
So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase “trillion dollars”… that’s what they’re talking about.
January 25th, 2011 at 12:14 am
This is very eye opening. We have no idea how bad it can be if we don’t get our spending under control. If the government spending money could fix the economy, we’d have the most rip roaring economy in the history of our country right now, since we just spent the most money in our history to try to stimulate it. It aint working folks.