What is a Trillion?

The B.O. presidency is about to pass an 850 Billion dollar “stimulus” package, criticized as being a fast-tracked budget extension for many liberal pet-projects. Additionally, most economists feel the expenditures are too slow to develop, and that the economy, left alone, would recover in about two years. Many provisions of the stimulus package would not even be in full swing yet. We, as a nation are about to have an operating deficit of one trillion dollars.

I have for years (since 1988) said that liberal government’s primary directive is to get people so dependant of government programs and money that the people would resist change for fear of losing assistance, thus creating a permanent liberal state. A government that will let enough individuals fail to give the masses a real fear of what life would be like without the government aid, but offer no real motivation to excel since the burden of the poor rests firmly on the shoulders of the successful.

So, back to my question, what is a trillion? We see the word and probably think hey, it is only one more than a billion and just two more than a million. I think if the media showed the number instead of the word people would be a little more concerned.

With my question in mind I took to the Inter-web and this is some of what I found.

• Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000.00, or a 1, twelve zeros and 4 commas.
• A Trillion in time: A million seconds ago was 12 days ago. A billion seconds ago was 1959. A trillion seconds ago Neanderthals were wandering around France.
• Based on the US Treasury’s average gross income of a working American I would have to work 17,233 years to make $1,000,000,000,000.00. However, since I work in education I may need to work 20,000 years.
• Light travels about 186,200 miles per second. It takes the light from the sun 8 minutes to reach Earth. If I could ride the V-Strom to the Sun at 100 MPH it would take me over 105 years to get there. At light speed, light leaving the Sun would take 62 days to travel a trillion miles.
• A Trillion in Distance: A trillion miles would be about 350 trips to Pluto & back on the V-Strom if we were both on the same side of the sun.

I do not know about you but that last one made me a bit nauseous.

With this in mind I do not think is unpatriotic or that I lack compassion for the people in need if I want to ask where my money is going.