Orders of Magnitude

We've been hearing a lot about really big numbers lately; both in terms of the economy but also during the election generally. Mostly these numbers involve money, because lets face it we don't end up with trillions of much else besides money, and not the kind you can carry in a brief case either. Part of the problem here is that these numbers are largely theoretical, or at least that they deal with things that aren't tangible, you can't hold a billion dollars in your hand.

Thomas Schaller addressed this issue the other day and I think he did such a good job that I want to share. Most people, myself included, just know that millions, billions and, trillions are really big numbers. Some of us can tell you that one billion is one thousand million but what does that really mean? Take it away Tom...

Millions, billions and trillions all sound the same. But a million seconds takes about 11 days to expire; because a billion is a thousand million, a billion seconds takes about 30 years to expire; because a trillion is a thousand billion, a trillion seconds takes about 30,000 years to expire. These are not interchangeable orders of magnitude, folks.

Our federal debt is headed toward $10 trillion, which means if we stopped adding to it immediately, and all credit holders (yeah you, China) stopped charging us interest, and we started paying down the debt at $1 per second, it would take about 300,000 years to retire.

Read it again and, wow.