A Trillion: How Much Is That Really?
There is casual talk of a trillion of this or that these days. But just how much is a trillion of anything?
Back in the late 1950s there was a television program titled "Millionaire". The premise of this show was that an anonymous wealthy man, never seen by the viewer, would gave away checks for a million dollars to people he chose in some way. He then had his associate follow the resulting change in the recipient's life and report back. In those days, a million dollars seemed to be an incalculable or unimaginable, seemingly infinite amount of money to the average person. It was fantastic to contemplate.
Now in 2020, most folks understand what a million dollars is. In home buying in the Houston Texas area , a nice house can be bought for $250,000; a quarter of a million. A really nice place in a great neighborhood on a good sized lot can be $500,000 or somewhat more, perhaps even a cool million. The point is that average people today do understand what a million dollars is.
So then, just what is a million? One way of looking at a million is to imagine a thousand piles of one thousand whatever in each pile, or a thousand-thousands, commonly written as 1,000,000.
With that said, what is a billion? The short answer is that a billion is a thousand millions. A stack of hundred dollar bills around six inches high amounts to one hundred thousand dollars. Ten such stacks, or a million dollars in $100 bills can be put into an ordinary sized brief case if packed neatly. A thousand such brief cases can be stacked, 50 at a time, on around 20 standard shipping pallets. Each pallet would be 4 feet by 4 feet and stand about 4 feet tall. That amounts to a billion dollars. A trillion dollars would take twenty thousand pallets of 100 dollar bills. If they were layed out on a football field, the entire playing area would be covered with pallets from goal line to goal line and side line to side lineb . . . . and stand two and a half stories high. In 2020, the size of the Nation's debt is well over 20 times that. No foot ball stadium in the country could physically hold twenty trillion dollars in $100 dollar bills.
That is a trillion dollars.