tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13639087.post-75387375007787354412008-03-04T14:24:00.004-05:002008-03-04T15:29:03.882-05:00What's the difference between a million, a billion, a trillion?<br /><br />A million has 6 zeros (1,000,000)<br />A billion has 9 zeros (1,000,000,000)<br />A trillion has 12 zeros (1,000,000,000,000)<br /><br />A million seconds is 11 days, 13 hours, 46 minutes and 40 seconds.<br />A billion seconds is 31 years.<br />A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.<br /><br />The United States of America has not existed for a trillion seconds.<br />No civilization -- Western, Eastern, or Middle Eastern -- has been in existence for a trillion seconds.<br />Recorded history has not existed for a trillion seconds.<br /><br />A million minutes ago was 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes ago.<br />A billion minutes ago was over nineteen hundred years ago -- just after the time of Christ.<br /><br />A million hours ago was in 1894.<br />A billion hours ago, man did not exist -- regardless of what "Origins of Man" theory you adhere to.<br /><br />A million dollars ago was five seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury.<br />A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.<br />A trillion dollars ago, we were halfway into the current "War on Terror."<br /><br />According to the <a href=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html>U.S. Census Bureau</a>, there are an estimated 300 million people in this country.<br /><br />If <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/opinion/04herbert.html>Bob Herbert's New York Times editorial</a> is to be believed, the current war our Fearless Leaders have waged in the Middle East will cost this country (read: us) at least $2 billion.<br /><br /><i>The war in Iraq will ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers not hundreds of billions of dollars, but an astonishing $2 trillion, and perhaps more...<br /><br />On Thursday (Feb. 28, 2008), the Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Senator Chuck Schumer, conducted a public examination of the costs of the war. The witnesses included the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz (who believes the overall costs of the war — not just the cost to taxpayers — will reach $3 trillion), and Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International.</i> <br /><br />Which means, if you do the math, that 3 hundred <i><b>M</i></b>illion people will bear the financial burden of at least 2 <i><b>TR</i></b>illion dollars.<br /><br />To the tune of $6,667 per person. <br /><br />Did I authorize that expenditure? Hmmm....<br /><br />Not in a Million Years.Ami Hendricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16113842141579251283noreply@blogger.com