Oops, my bad. Counting to $200 million would take over 2,300 *days*, not years. It’s still a pretty big number, taking a little over six years to count out.
Many (most?) human beings have a problem getting their arms around any quantity that has an “illion” at its end. After a while, what precedes the “illion” fades away, and all we hear is “one big number added to another awful big number, giving us a really big total”.
Would you believe me if I told you that it would take 11 and a half days to count by ones, one per second, to a mere million? That’s pocket change in Washington. A $200 million program would take over 2,300 years to count out.
How long do you think it would take to count to a billion — that’s a quantity politicians talk in all the time? Try 31 years, 8 months, and 16 days. It would take double that — a full lifetime for many — to count out a $2 billion expenditure.
How about a trillion? That’s the ballpark neighborhood in which our debt lives. 31,709 years to count to one trillion. $14 trillion, which some say our national debt will reach soon? That’s 443,926 years.
I start to lose track of numbers at somewhere between a billion and a trillion; I have to think in years in millenia, thus I can’t visualize 30,000 years; where I might be able to visualize 5,000 years. I admit that I am overwhelmed by a number it would take over 300,000 *years* to count to. If you aren’t, perhaps you should be.
Words are cheap. Be very careful as you listen to them. Do the math, if you can.
The “painful cuts” in the bill are IN”significant” considering the fact that the DEBT is going to rise 7-9 TRILLION $$$ over the next decade!!!
We are truly on the road to financial *destruction.* The only real solution was the “Cut, Cap and Balanced Act” as passed by the House a week or so ago.
Anyone who wants to understand the reason our nation is on a path to *destruction* should read “The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America” by Daniel Hannan.
The answer to Madeline’s question was perfectly articulated by the brilliant Senator Mike Lee:
“Greedy Politicians Don’t Want Balanced Budget”
“Members of Congress oppose a balanced budget amendment simply because they do not want to give up power that rightly belongs to the American people themselves.”…
“Why? ‘Because a balanced budget amendment would make politicians less powerful,’ he said. ‘It would make Congress as an institution less powerful. Anytime an institution has access to an unlimited pool of money, especially if it is a lawmaking institution like Congress, it will be made more powerful as a result of that.'”…
Read more on Newsmax.com: Sen. Mike Lee: Greedy Politicians Don’t Want Balanced Budget
This “compromise” deal is a shameful scam! “The calamitous specter of a default” was always a sham and *scare tactic* by the DEMS and their compliant media lapdogs.
Why is it that we the people, taxpayers and citizens, are always getting tax increases. We can hardly keep up with paying our own debts and then we have to pay for your pay raises and all the other perks that go along with it. Whatever happened to serving the people? ere are some questions for you: why do state employees have a union? Aren’t we, the taxpayers paying their wages, why should we have to pay the union too? Why is it that we the taxpayers have to give more and more and you, the polititions don’t take less and less (cut back)(in your paychecks). There are very few politicians who truly care about what is best for the citizens of this state and truly deserve their paychecks. If you are going to take advantage of your citizens, then we will vote your but out of office.
Oops, my bad. Counting to $200 million would take over 2,300 *days*, not years. It’s still a pretty big number, taking a little over six years to count out.
Many (most?) human beings have a problem getting their arms around any quantity that has an “illion” at its end. After a while, what precedes the “illion” fades away, and all we hear is “one big number added to another awful big number, giving us a really big total”.
Would you believe me if I told you that it would take 11 and a half days to count by ones, one per second, to a mere million? That’s pocket change in Washington. A $200 million program would take over 2,300 years to count out.
How long do you think it would take to count to a billion — that’s a quantity politicians talk in all the time? Try 31 years, 8 months, and 16 days. It would take double that — a full lifetime for many — to count out a $2 billion expenditure.
How about a trillion? That’s the ballpark neighborhood in which our debt lives. 31,709 years to count to one trillion. $14 trillion, which some say our national debt will reach soon? That’s 443,926 years.
I start to lose track of numbers at somewhere between a billion and a trillion; I have to think in years in millenia, thus I can’t visualize 30,000 years; where I might be able to visualize 5,000 years. I admit that I am overwhelmed by a number it would take over 300,000 *years* to count to. If you aren’t, perhaps you should be.
Words are cheap. Be very careful as you listen to them. Do the math, if you can.
The “painful cuts” in the bill are IN”significant” considering the fact that the DEBT is going to rise 7-9 TRILLION $$$ over the next decade!!!
We are truly on the road to financial *destruction.* The only real solution was the “Cut, Cap and Balanced Act” as passed by the House a week or so ago.
Anyone who wants to understand the reason our nation is on a path to *destruction* should read “The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America” by Daniel Hannan.
The answer to Madeline’s question was perfectly articulated by the brilliant Senator Mike Lee:
“Greedy Politicians Don’t Want Balanced Budget”
“Members of Congress oppose a balanced budget amendment simply because they do not want to give up power that rightly belongs to the American people themselves.”…
“Why? ‘Because a balanced budget amendment would make politicians less powerful,’ he said. ‘It would make Congress as an institution less powerful. Anytime an institution has access to an unlimited pool of money, especially if it is a lawmaking institution like Congress, it will be made more powerful as a result of that.'”…
Read more on Newsmax.com: Sen. Mike Lee: Greedy Politicians Don’t Want Balanced Budget
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/mike-lee-balanced-budget/2011/07/20/id/404315
This “compromise” deal is a shameful scam! “The calamitous specter of a default” was always a sham and *scare tactic* by the DEMS and their compliant media lapdogs.
Why is it that we the people, taxpayers and citizens, are always getting tax increases. We can hardly keep up with paying our own debts and then we have to pay for your pay raises and all the other perks that go along with it. Whatever happened to serving the people? ere are some questions for you: why do state employees have a union? Aren’t we, the taxpayers paying their wages, why should we have to pay the union too? Why is it that we the taxpayers have to give more and more and you, the polititions don’t take less and less (cut back)(in your paychecks). There are very few politicians who truly care about what is best for the citizens of this state and truly deserve their paychecks. If you are going to take advantage of your citizens, then we will vote your but out of office.