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 it's nothing, so I thought I'd take my blog readers 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 U.S. denomination in general circulation. Just about everyone has seen one of these bills, 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...
Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...
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.
But also consider this, those 10,000 stacks are ten times more worthless then they were 10 years ago...so money has a lesser value then it used to have, and this is what they've got to dish out just to keep things floating (not even fixed).
How many more of those bills do you and your family need?
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