What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy

[ProSense]

Economix

What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy

By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: January 17, 2007

The human mind isn’t very well equipped to make sense of a figure like $1.2 trillion. We don’t deal with a trillion of anything in our daily lives, and so when we come across such a big number, it is hard to distinguish it from any other big number. Millions, billions, a trillion — they all start to sound the same.

The way to come to grips with $1.2 trillion is to forget about the number itself and think instead about what you could buy with the money. When you do that, a trillion stops sounding anything like millions or billions.

For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

Snip...

All that would be one way to spend $1.2 trillion. Here would be another:

The war in Iraq.

more...

[AndyA]

1. What a waste of taxpayer money George Bush is.

It's disgraceful. How many lives have been lost in this country alone since Chimpy took office due to lack of medicine or medical care?

Add to that the dead troops, and the dead Iraqis, and Bush has a sea of blood he's responsible for.

Congress, DO YOUR JOB AND GO AFTER THIS NUT CASE ALREADY!

[aquart]

2. Me, for one. That's my price. I always wondered what it was.

There it is.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Astounding

Too bad these graphics can't be shown to the American people on television.

Newspapers are icky and leave black marks on your fingers.

[cain_7777]

4. America needs to send the Bush family the bill

It's their war to make their friends rich and they should pay for it

[Javaman]

5. I remember once upon a time, when the deficit hit 1 trillion dollars...

I was living on Long Island.

The Newsday put out a little factoid that I will never forget.

They said that if you took 1 trillion and changed it into 1 dollar bills, one could cover the entire length of Long Island 3 layers deep in the bills.

that, at the time was every square foot of existing land. Now Long Island isn't very big. about 120 miles long and about 65 miles wide at it's widest point. But when you think about every square foot and look around, that's a lot of money.