Unbelievable
It has been said, "Borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect you to pay it back," Apparently, we are a nation of pessimist.
The amount of debt that our government has generated is unfathomable for most of us. We have placed our lives and the future lives of our children into the hands of men and women of both parties and they are taking away our hope and our future through unmitigated spending.
Think about this...the Outstanding Public Debt as of 27 Oct 2009 is: $11,908,425,249,161.11. The estimated population of the United States is 307,174,911, so each citizen's share of this debt is $38,767.57. The National Debt has continued to increse an average of $3.3 billion a day since September 27, 2007. Eleven trillion dollars of debt...mind numbing isn't it!
Since I have trouble balancing my check book and any amount over $782 in my savings account is seen as a minor miracle, it is difficult for me to imagine the size of our nations growing debt. Let me try to help us understand this amount in more practical concepts.
David Schwartz, a children's book author whose How Much Is a Million? tries to wrap young minds around the concept. "One million seconds comes out to be about 11½ days. A billion seconds is 32 years. And a trillion seconds is 32,000 years...that's right, thirty-two thousand years! Western civilization has not been around a trillion seconds. One trillion seconds ago - 31,688 years was well before the peak of the last ice age which was about 20,000 years ago.
A stack of one trillion $1 bills would reach more than a quarter of the way to the moon. A trillion dollar bills laid end to end would reach the sun (approx. 93 million miles). One trillion dollars in pennies would weigh as much as 2,755,778 Argentinosauruses (the largest known dinosaur).
Think about this, if you started your business when Jesus was born, with an investment of One Trillion Dollars, and you lost One Million Dollars every day, 365 days a year, you would still be in business over 700 years from now!
Let's investigate what one trillion dollars can do:
*$1 trillion could pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with gold -- 23.5-karat gold leaf.
*It could buy every person on the planet an iPod.
*It could give every high-school student in the United States a free college education.
*It could pay off every American's credit card.
*It could buy a Buick for every senior citizen still driving in the United States.
*America could double the 663,000 cops on the beat for 32 years.
*It could buy 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses, enough for 43 million Americans.
*One trillion dollars is enough to run the U.S. government for 103 days.
*One trillion dollars is enough to pay for eleven additional weeks of vacation for every American worker.
*One trillion dollars could repurchase all the homes that were foreclosed on in 2007 and 2008.
*One trillion dollars could pay the rent for every renter in the United States for 3 years or pay the mortgages for every American for 14 months.
*One trillion dollars could pay for all the U.S. military interventions and wars since 9/11.
I don't know about you but I think it is time for our senators and representatives in Congress to stop the spending. Someone has to have the common sense and the courage to say no before its too late...and maybe it already is. Just call me a pessimist.
Comments
- -- Posted by 1stcavdad on Tue, Oct 27, 2009, at 4:31 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Oct 27, 2009, at 4:34 PM
- -- Posted by Dexterite1 on Tue, Oct 27, 2009, at 8:14 PM
- -- Posted by FJGuy on Tue, Oct 27, 2009, at 8:46 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Oct 27, 2009, at 9:27 PM
- -- Posted by Dexterite1 on Wed, Oct 28, 2009, at 6:26 AM
- -- Posted by Dexterite1 on Wed, Oct 28, 2009, at 6:48 AM
- -- Posted by BarbaraNTexas on Wed, Oct 28, 2009, at 8:09 AM
- -- Posted by Dexterite1 on Wed, Oct 28, 2009, at 9:19 AM
- -- Posted by BarbaraNTexas on Wed, Oct 28, 2009, at 2:25 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Thu, Oct 29, 2009, at 6:33 AM
- -- Posted by Dexterite1 on Thu, Oct 29, 2009, at 7:30 AM
- -- Posted by swift on Sat, Oct 31, 2009, at 12:15 PM
- -- Posted by mobrigade on Mon, Nov 2, 2009, at 11:34 AM
- -- Posted by swift on Mon, Nov 2, 2009, at 3:50 PM
- -- Posted by Jim Morrison on Thu, Nov 12, 2009, at 1:23 AM
- -- Posted by swift on Thu, Nov 12, 2009, at 4:25 PM
- -- Posted by sassie on Thu, Feb 18, 2010, at 8:34 PM
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