Deficit data

Posted at 12:29 PM on March 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Surveys and trivia

What is the main effect the economic meltdown and subsequent bailout efforts have had on America? It makes giant numbers that used to make our jaws drop, now make our shoulders shrug.

Example? Today some congressional economists reportedly whispered that the nation's deficit will hit $1.8 trillion this year. That shatters the previous record of $459 billion, a number which once sounded like something other than the change you pull out of your pocket and throw on the dresser at night.

How much is 1.8 trillion?

>> It would take 57,077 years for you to count that high, assuming you don't sleep. That doesn't include leap days.

>> It's 882,352,941 pounds of $100 bills. That was about the total weight of one tower of the World Trade Center.

>> You could walk around the earth 72,284,656 times, and you'd still be about 20,000 miles short of 1.8 trillion.

>> At its current rate, AIG could give bonuses to 4.4 million employees.

>> It could close the Minnesota budget deficit 331 times.

>> 51,385,994 people could take a backpacking trip around the world. (h/t: Daniel Konold via Twitter)

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Comments (3)

The xkcd comic from today touches on that subject. While the punchline is a little awkward, the panels sum it up very well.

Posted by MR | March 20, 2009 5:45 PM

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I was thinking about the money going into rail projects these days and began thinking, "billions and billions and billions...", which is when Carl Sagan popped into my head. If you had a dollar for every star, how many galaxies would it be?

Posted by mulad | March 20, 2009 10:03 PM

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Thanks for putting things in perspective, bob!

Posted by DK | March 23, 2009 10:08 AM

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