Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it. It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. -- MaxedOutMama

I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing. -- Kim du Toit

The most glaring example of the cognitive dissonance on the left is the concept that human beings are inherently good, yet at the same time cannot be trusted with any kind of weapon, unless the magic fairy dust of government authority gets sprinkled upon them.-- Moshe Ben-David

The cult of the left believes that it is engaged in a great apocalyptic battle with corporations and industrialists for the ownership of the unthinking masses. Its acolytes see themselves as the individuals who have been "liberated" to think for themselves. They make choices. You however are just a member of the unthinking masses. You are not really a person, but only respond to the agendas of your corporate overlords. If you eat too much, it's because corporations make you eat. If you kill, it's because corporations encourage you to buy guns. You are not an individual. You are a social problem. -- Sultan Knish

All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war. -- Billy Beck

Sunday, May 31, 2009

$2,287,706,658,821 ($2.29 Trillion)

$2,287,706,658,821 ($2.29 Trillion)

I received an interesting email today.

It turns out that the number $2.2 trillion is not an uncommon one. It seems that in 2007 the country spent $2.24 trillion on health care.

The IMF estimates that worldwide bank losses on U.S. assets topped $2.2 trillion.

The projected cost to repair America's infrastructure is estimated at $2.2 trillion.

Oil companies have paid a combined total of $2.2 trillion in taxes over the last 25 years, adjusted for inflation.

There's more, but that gives you a taste.

But how do you visualize that much money?

My correspondent was ingenious. According to WikiAnswers, a single crisp new dollar bill has dimensions of
6.6294cm (2.61") wide, by 15.5956cm (6.14") long, and 0.010922cm (0.0043") in thickness
Not much help.

Here's a visual:


That's Kheops' pyramid, the Great Pyramid at Giza. Click for a bigger version of the image.

It has a volume of 2,583,283 cubic meters.

Now imagine all that stone was instead stacks of $1 bills:

$2,287,706,658,821.00

$2.29 trillion.

Boggles, doesn't it?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.