How To Imagine $1 Trillion Dollars

[Ron61]

This from an article in the local newspaper this morning.

From John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple University and author of "A Mathematician Reads The Newspaper." It wasn't that long ago that people were astonished at the way politicians talked about Billions as if they were nothing and now they aren't. When President Bush asked for $85 Billion for the Gulf War, people wore T-Shirts with a blank check printed on them and $85 Billion on the back. Now they talk about Trillions.
He suggests thinking of the gobsmacking numbers in terms of time: 1 million seconds is about 11 1/2 days, 1 Billion seconds is 32 years, 1 Trillion seconds is 32,000 years. Almost long enough for your 401K to recover.

Ron