What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

[Jim]

What does one 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 many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get 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, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

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 shamefully decadent 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...

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.
You ready for this?
It's pretty surprising.
Go ahead...
Scroll down...
Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...

(And notice those pallets are double stacked.)
So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.

 

[thirdeye]

It just looks like a bunch of red X's to me....

 

[Isaac]

Looks like the trillion I saw before......

Oh wait..i cant see it on your post either

 

[mmack66]

That's what it looks like in my wallet.

 

[Fnord5]

It would be so much easier just to do what Zimbabwe does.
230 million percent inflation anyone?

 

[dsipari]

I read something recently that put the bailout 'trillions' in perspective a bit better for me.
So far, the government has committed about $14 trillion for bailouts since December of 2007. Approximately half of this has been funded already.

In terms of time:
One million seconds is about 11 days
One billion seconds is about 32 years
One trillion seconds is about 32,000 years.....

whoa!!

 

[Rik]

It would be so much easier just to do what Zimbabwe does.
230 million percent inflation anyone?

I have friends in Zimbabwe. He shared that when he writes a check for groceries it is a royal pain trying get all the zeros to fit. Seriously.

 

[riooso]

I don't see a picture.


Richard

 

[copperhead]

I don't see a picture.


Richard

Ditto!

 

[bunchoffives]

Here's the link to this article:

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

 

[erudolph]

I like to think of a trillion something like this: If I say, "Let's meet at the coffee shop a million seconds from now," you'll find me at the coffee shop about a week and a half from today. If I say, "Let's meet a trillion seconds from now," I'll be at the coffee shop in about 32,000 years.

 

[ouch]

What does one trillion dollars look like? Why, that's easy!

 

[Baloosh]

More like priceless, ouch. As I'm sure you wouldn't sell her for any number of trillions of dollars.

But I agree with your sentiment.

 

[richmondesi]

Try this on for size: If you had a business that lost a million dollars a day from 0 A.D to today, your business still wouldn't have lost $1 trillion. In fact, to loose that much would take another 730+ years more.

 

[riooso]

But is it enough?



R

 

[Lynchmeister]

Great job, Jim! Now let's see that with a trillion looks like in singles.

 

[richmondesi]

Great job, Jim! Now let's see that with a trillion looks like in singles.

I would be approximately 67,000 miles high, Or roughly 1/3 the distance to the moon

 

[OldSaw]

Great job, Jim! Now let's see that with a trillion looks like in singles.

So if our Czar had a trillion singles and shared them with all the citizens of Cheddar, how many Yoopers, Minnesotans, and Flatlanders would it take to do all of our dirty work?

 

[dixee6]

Okay, yeah, that looks like a lot of money there. but I'm going to need more than that for all the things I really want to do!

 

[SepticTank]

It would be so much easier just to do what Zimbabwe does.
230 million percent inflation anyone?

231 million percent was the official figure for last July - like everywhere else highly understated - a better measure was the estimate from Steve Hanke of the Cato institute - 79.6 billion percent per month or 89.7 sextillion percent annually.

I have a friend who left Zim in November last year and before he left they were burning money instead of firewood because it was cheaper.