How Much is a Trillion?

To put a trillion dollars into perspective, I decided to do a little imagining.  Just suppose that you could use a 53-foot semi-trailer to represent 1 million dollars.  One million dollars won’t fill a trailer, but every time you see one, you know it stands for a million dollars.

Now, imagine driving 12 hours per day on a road trip past a solid row of 53-foot semi trailers.  This row of trailers represents 1 trillion dollars, with 1 million dollars in each trailer.  Here are your approximate trip stats (based on this route and driving time):

• 10,000 Miles of semi trailers
• 3.74 Rows of trailers from LA to DC
• 146 Hours to drive up and down the rows
• 12 Days for a road trip (driving 12-hour days) up and down the rows

Now that’s just a trillion dollars – nothing to sweat about.  The Democratic House passed a 3.55 trillion dollar budget, the Democratic Senate passed a 3.53 trillion dollar budget, and the Democrat President originally proposed a 3.61 trillion dollar budget.  Based on a 3.55 trillion dollar spending rate, here are some stats on the federal spending that would happen during your 12-day road trip:

• $118,000,000,000 would be spent during the 12 days
• 1190 Miles of additional trailers would be added
• 19.8 Hours is the additional driving time (at 60 Miles per Hour)

Sound like a long time?  Actually getting past this spending could be the work of decades, if it happens.

If you don’t like this, contact your Congressperson, Senators, and President to tell them so – and get involved in the next election.