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Millions, Billions and Trillions, Oh My!
Okay, earthlings, fire up your calculators. What's the difference between a million, a billion, and a trillion? A million seconds is 11.57 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. A trillion seconds is 31,688 years. Western civilization has not been around a trillion seconds.
A trillion seconds ago: 31,688 years was well before the peak of the last Ice Age. Apparently global warming started shortly thereafter. A millions minutes ago was 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours ago. A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ. A trillion minutes is 1,901,280 years. Did global warming exist then?
Now, let us get back to the dreaded "T" word. One trillion is the word politicians glibly use without understanding the line of zeroes accompanying it. It is Washington's favorite words these days. Millions and billions are just chump change to them.
The debt ceiling was just raised to $12.9 trillion. Oh, hell, make it $13 trillion ---what's a $100 billion among friends? There are 535 members of Congress. One trillion dollars represents $1,869,158,878.50 spent by each and every member of Congress of the taxpayers money. That's almost $2 billion each. Beam me up, Scotty. I'm ready.
Written by George Romagno, The Bakersfield Californian, January 14, 2010
7 comments:
It is time to vote the porkers out of Congress! We have been gouged for far too long.
Big hugs, honey...
i am voting them all out! and i cannot even imagine in my little brain these numbers. geesh.
smiles, bee
xoxoxooxxoxoox
They are attorney's. That should clear everything up in our minds. There are some good ones, but most aren't worth a dime. Power, it's all about power. They don't care, they aren't paying for anything.
Have a terrific day. :)
Good Lord. And where is all of that money going? It sure isn't into my pocket at all!
Who even knew there were numbers so high?? Obviously not our folks in Washington!
a rather depressing...very interesting...but still depressing explanation.
I just don't think most Americans are paying attention. It will be a long hard fight back.
Some very sobering numbers. I think what bothers me me most is how cavelier some congress members are about this exponential increase of debt. It seems that they think it is just a matter of adding a few 0's. It is a shame that such fiscal and social irresponsibility has become institutionalized because voting out one set will not solve the issues. I know there is no easy answer, but playing a shell game with numbers, as they are doing with the debt and with the pseudo-health care reform, only makes matters worse and incurs a larger bill for the next generation. I do not mean to be such a downer. There is measured recovery, especially at a small scale community level, but it is fragile. I feel for those who worked so hard to build up our country and provide opportunites for the younger generations. May we restore the legacy, the community, and the dream that they labored to provide. (Yes, I know - I am "a bit" of an idealist.)
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