It occurred to me, reading Joseph Sawyer's letter on the national debt ceiling (Sept. 14), that I didn't know what $1 trillion is, let alone $2 trillion. Of course, I knew that a trillion is a thousand billion and that a billion is a thousand million. But I didn't really understand what that means. Knowing there are 12 zeros in a trillion didn't help much either.
Why not think of it in terms of seconds, I asked myself? A trillion seconds would have to be years, probably many years ago. I made a wild guess. As it turned out, I wasn't close. I found that 1,000 seconds ago was equal to almost 17 minutes. It would take almost 12 days for a million seconds to elapse and 31.7 years for a billion seconds. Therefore, a trillion seconds would amount to no less than 31,709.8 years.
A trillion seconds ago, there was no written history. The pyramids had not yet been built. It would be 10,000 years before the cave paintings in France were begun, and saber-toothed tigers were still prowling the planet.
I was stunned. At first I thought I must have made a mistake, but a banker friend checked my figures and pronounced them accurate.
Was I alone in not knowing how long ago a trillion seconds was? I asked some of my neighbors what they would say if they were told they could have $1 trillion in one-dollar bills, so long as they agreed to initial each bill. Their answers were very similar. ''No!'' they said. When I asked why, they said, almost without exception, ''Because it would take me the rest of my life!''
We must all of us, especially our elected officials, stop thinking of a trillion seconds as merely a long time ago and a trillion dollars as just a lot of money. The next time our senators and representatives consider the Federal deficit and the cost of the arms race, they should allow themselves briefly to think of seconds instead of dollars. They might then picture, if they would, prehistoric man hunched in a smoke-filled cave, gnawing at the bones of a woolly mammoth.
We must all of us, especially our elected officials, stop thinking of a trillion seconds as merely a long time ago and a trillion dollars as just a lot of money.
Would never happen - they would spend all their time thinking about out how to get their hands on a piece of that $1T
It won't matter to our elected officials, at least most of them today, as they only care about their ideology (money) and themselves. A trillion more or less is something they can throw out of their mouths and make us think it isn't that much money.
When I ran for the House, the debt just topped $9T. The man focus of my campaign was to stop out of control spending. I had a demonstration at all my appearances about how long 9T seconds was. I also prepared an example of how high 9T $1 bills would stack up. I’d ask people to take out a calculator and do the math with me. I then focused on how my Dem opponent voted for every spending bill. I even had it on my website.
I was in a Dem controlled district where their candidate won with 80% of the vote in the previous election cycle. The district, at that time, had three very radical universities in it. With no help from the national party, I got his margin of victory down to 77%.
You could Bankrupt everyone in America, and all of the Corporations, and all of the States, and not come close to having enough to cover that debt....
Suck up every Cent made by all of them in One Year, and maybe, just maybe, put a dent in the debt....
the situation, as I see it, is that The ""National"" debt, is nothing more than the U.S. Government Debt, aka it is NOT in fact ""National"", it is Federal Debt, because the United States is a Federation, and Federations are Prohibited from being Nations, they are Made up of Nations, like Bricks in a Wall....
Two Nations do not make a very large Federation, but it IS a Federation nonetheless....
Problem 2 in this is that the Entirety of the Debt is based upon ""Our Good Faith and Credit"", ok, but WHO exactly???
In Round 1, it was the Federation without Collateral....
Round 2, they used the State Lands for Collateral....
Round 3 they used the Cattle and Chattel, yes, You along with any Pets and Livestock....
Now we are just past the beginnings of Round 4, which is not Chapter 11 Bankruptcy via Reorganization, it's actual Claim of Direct Ownership due to the unpayable Debt....
Their other Problem is that they FIRST Borrowed War Monies from the American Peoples, and have been borrowing(stealing) it from us since, well, the beginning....
This BS claim that the Privately Owned Fed Res Banking Corporation has made, is just that, BS, they are the ""Johnny Come Lately"", or the Third Party Interloper....
The entire thing is a Rigged Scam, aka, RICO Racket, and/or, Confidence Scheme, it's also an International Crime, and the Rothschilds are right at the Heart of it, ALL of it....
To the Editor:
It occurred to me, reading Joseph Sawyer's letter on the national debt ceiling (Sept. 14), that I didn't know what $1 trillion is, let alone $2 trillion. Of course, I knew that a trillion is a thousand billion and that a billion is a thousand million. But I didn't really understand what that means. Knowing there are 12 zeros in a trillion didn't help much either.
Why not think of it in terms of seconds, I asked myself? A trillion seconds would have to be years, probably many years ago. I made a wild guess. As it turned out, I wasn't close. I found that 1,000 seconds ago was equal to almost 17 minutes. It would take almost 12 days for a million seconds to elapse and 31.7 years for a billion seconds. Therefore, a trillion seconds would amount to no less than 31,709.8 years.
A trillion seconds ago, there was no written history. The pyramids had not yet been built. It would be 10,000 years before the cave paintings in France were begun, and saber-toothed tigers were still prowling the planet.
I was stunned. At first I thought I must have made a mistake, but a banker friend checked my figures and pronounced them accurate.
Was I alone in not knowing how long ago a trillion seconds was? I asked some of my neighbors what they would say if they were told they could have $1 trillion in one-dollar bills, so long as they agreed to initial each bill. Their answers were very similar. ''No!'' they said. When I asked why, they said, almost without exception, ''Because it would take me the rest of my life!''
We must all of us, especially our elected officials, stop thinking of a trillion seconds as merely a long time ago and a trillion dollars as just a lot of money. The next time our senators and representatives consider the Federal deficit and the cost of the arms race, they should allow themselves briefly to think of seconds instead of dollars. They might then picture, if they would, prehistoric man hunched in a smoke-filled cave, gnawing at the bones of a woolly mammoth.
DOROTHY C. MORRELL Seattle, Sept. 18, 1986
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/28/opinion/l-just-how-long-is-a-trillion-seconds-229186.html
Archived link - https://archive.ph/BlWM1
Thank you!
u/#classywow
Was your GIF the right one to choose? . . . u/#mikeyep
Would never happen - they would spend all their time thinking about out how to get their hands on a piece of that $1T
It won't matter to our elected officials, at least most of them today, as they only care about their ideology (money) and themselves. A trillion more or less is something they can throw out of their mouths and make us think it isn't that much money.
When I ran for the House, the debt just topped $9T. The man focus of my campaign was to stop out of control spending. I had a demonstration at all my appearances about how long 9T seconds was. I also prepared an example of how high 9T $1 bills would stack up. I’d ask people to take out a calculator and do the math with me. I then focused on how my Dem opponent voted for every spending bill. I even had it on my website.
Short story.... you did not get selected with that type of honorable thinking
I was in a Dem controlled district where their candidate won with 80% of the vote in the previous election cycle. The district, at that time, had three very radical universities in it. With no help from the national party, I got his margin of victory down to 77%.
34 trillion seconds is 1,077,392 years.
A second for every dollar we owe is over a MILLION YEARS. But we're not at the precipice yet.
Wouldn't take long to pay off. If every American man, woman, and child just payed the government $106,250 dollars we could pay that off in one year.
Or I suppose we could just separate from the U.S. Corporation and let the Corp deal with the debt they created.
You could Bankrupt everyone in America, and all of the Corporations, and all of the States, and not come close to having enough to cover that debt....
Suck up every Cent made by all of them in One Year, and maybe, just maybe, put a dent in the debt....
the situation, as I see it, is that The ""National"" debt, is nothing more than the U.S. Government Debt, aka it is NOT in fact ""National"", it is Federal Debt, because the United States is a Federation, and Federations are Prohibited from being Nations, they are Made up of Nations, like Bricks in a Wall....
Two Nations do not make a very large Federation, but it IS a Federation nonetheless....
Problem 2 in this is that the Entirety of the Debt is based upon ""Our Good Faith and Credit"", ok, but WHO exactly???
In Round 1, it was the Federation without Collateral....
Round 2, they used the State Lands for Collateral....
Round 3 they used the Cattle and Chattel, yes, You along with any Pets and Livestock....
Now we are just past the beginnings of Round 4, which is not Chapter 11 Bankruptcy via Reorganization, it's actual Claim of Direct Ownership due to the unpayable Debt....
Their other Problem is that they FIRST Borrowed War Monies from the American Peoples, and have been borrowing(stealing) it from us since, well, the beginning....
This BS claim that the Privately Owned Fed Res Banking Corporation has made, is just that, BS, they are the ""Johnny Come Lately"", or the Third Party Interloper....
The entire thing is a Rigged Scam, aka, RICO Racket, and/or, Confidence Scheme, it's also an International Crime, and the Rothschilds are right at the Heart of it, ALL of it....
haha!
31,688 years with leap years accounted for.
Shit... Well if THAT isn't some perspective...
Wtf.
Just plug this into a PowerShell command line and see how quick it takes to count to 1 billion. The weekend will be over before it's done.
1..1000000000 | % { $_ }
30 or 35 millennium.
very.