348.57

[muff528 3]

...is how many years it would take to flush $1.1 trillion down a toilet if you dropped a $100 bill in every second without stopping. If you started at midnight you'd have flushed over $1 million by 2:47 AM.

[lawrocket 3]

Yep. The number "Trillion" is so massive that I really think most people simply fail to grasp it.

Here's an example. The Voyager 1 probe is traveling at about 38,000 mph. It was launched from earth in 1977. It is the furthest man-made object from the earth. Pluto - at apogee - is about 49 times further away from the sun than the earth (about 49 Astronomical Units). Voyager 1 is 115 Astronomical Units away from the sun - over twice as far away from the sun as Pluto.

So, being more than twice as far away from the sun as Pluto, one knows that Voyager is way the hell out there. In fact, it's about 10.7 billion miles from the sun, or roughly 10.6 billion miles from the earth.

Yep. Voyager 1, more than twice ar far away from Pluto, is 10.6 billion miles away. 16 hours for the radio signal to get from there to here and it's a mere 10.6 billion miles.

Billion is a big number. Trillion is a thousand billion.

Just a little more information to show the size of the number "trillion" that is tossed around so easily...

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[skinnay 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBMGms17blE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFRxiX0pQl4

For if you still need help visualizing/quantifying this number.

[happythoughts 0]

spend it on crack, it'll go faster. if you're going to flush it, that is the fast way.

[muff528 3]

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spend it on crack, it'll go faster. if you're going to flush it, that is the fast way.

You been hangin' out on 6th Avenue again!?

[muff528 3]

And the nearest star system is about 24 trillion miles away. So it'll be a while before anyone gets there (from here).

[Coreece 190]

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...is how many years it would take to flush $1.1 trillion down a toilet if you dropped a $100 bill in every second without stopping. If you started at midnight you'd have flushed over $1 million by 2:47 AM.

Don't worry...it goes much faster when it's a team effort.

Your secrets are the true reflection of who you really are...

[JohnRich 4]

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...is how many years it would take to flush $1.1 trillion down a toilet if you dropped a $100 bill in every second without stopping.

I have an alternative plan to that congressional spending proposal. I say we offer every congressman $1 million if they'll sign a contract agreeing not to raise government spending during the remainder of their term. Violation of the contract would result in forfeiture of their personal assets to re-pay the $1 million. That would cost us only about half a billion dollars, which is a bargain compared to what they're going to do left unchecked. All we need is for a majority of them to go for the bait. We could get off as cheap as a quarter billion - mere peanuts!

[popsjumper 2]

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Quote

...is how many years it would take to flush $1.1 trillion down a toilet if you dropped a $100 bill in every second without stopping.

I have an alternative plan to that congressional spending proposal. I say we offer every congressman $1 million if they'll sign a contract agreeing not to raise government spending during the remainder of their term. Violation of the contract would result in forfeiture of their personal assets to re-pay the $1 million. That would cost us only about half a billion dollars, which is a bargain compared to what they're going to do left unchecked. All we need is for a majority of them to go for the bait. We could get off as cheap as a quarter billion - mere peanuts!

i LIKE that!

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[jakee 1,596]

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Yep. Voyager 1, more than twice ar far away from Pluto, is 10.6 billion miles away. 16 hours for the radio signal to get from there to here and it's a mere 10.6 billion miles.

Or a staggering 18.6 trillion yards.

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Just a little more information to show the size of the number "trillion" that is tossed around so easily...

The 'size' of the number is informed by the units it's attatched to. Walk a mile, spend a dollar, which is more significant?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[pirana 0]

It occurs to me this means nothing to politicians because it isn't really money to them; or better put, the money does not mean anything to them. They are focused solely on the spending; and must have the money they want to spend - no matter what.

So while most of us are wowed by these staggering analogies of just how humongous our debt is, it just isn't on their radar.

Here is a nifty little site:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

If this info is true, all we need is for every taxpayer to cough up $125K and we'll be debt free.

I wonder how bad it can get before our economy just outright collapses? Something I'm pretty certain is also not even on their radar.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[Niki1 2]

I have an alternative plan to that congressional spending proposal. I say we offer every congressman $1 million if they'll sign a contract agreeing not to raise government spending during the remainder of their term. Violation of the contract would result in forfeiture of their personal assets to re-pay the $1 million. That would cost us only about half a billion dollars, which is a bargain compared to what they're going to do left unchecked. All we need is for a majority of them to go for the bait. We could get off as cheap as a quarter billion - mere peanuts!

[Southern_Man 0]

The problem is $1million is chump change compared to the deferred wages these guys can earn going to work as lobbyists for (after they are through being congressmen) for the same companies they gave bribes to...er...directed government spending contracts towards during their time in office.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"