What does a TRILLION dollars look like?
All this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"...
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 so much chicken feed, The following will give you 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. Most everyone has seen them, slightly fewer have owned them.
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 vacation 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...10 pallets, $100 million on each pallet.
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, $1,000,000,000,000.00
You ready for this?
It's pretty surprising.
Go ahead... Scroll down...
Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...
Notice those pallets are double stacked....and remember those are $100 bills. See the man in the lower left hand corner....He's about 6' tall. So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.
Our Nation is 14 TRILLION dollars in debt. Add thirteen more layers like the one above and you will get an idea of what 14 TRILLION dollars looks like.