Just to make it clear once forever, that in Hollywood movies, when they say "You have 3 hours too arrange $100MM in cash" etc. there is no way this money will feet into a suitcase.
What does one trillion dollars look like?
21–30 of 54 posts
Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#22It's really hard to imagine a trillion dollars, but it's also hard to imagine 7 billion people or 300 million Americans. Usually when we're talking about trillions of dollars we're talking about something at a national or international level, i.e. shared among a large group of people. Dollars per capita is often a better metric because it's normalized to something more tangible.
A trillion dollars is about 3200 dollars per American or 12000 dollars per American taxpayer. It's still a lot of money, but much easier to think about.
Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#23Just to make it clear once forever, that in Hollywood movies, when they say "You have 3 hours too arrange $100MM in cash" etc. there is no way this money will feet into a suitcase.
A bitcoin private key fits nicely onto a single page of paper. Print it, hand it over to the bad guys, done.
Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#24The writing on this page is insufferable. A more effective presentation of this information would have been a simple graphic.
Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#25Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#26Now, that's the SketchUp, isn't it? ;)
Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#27Just to make it clear once forever, that in Hollywood movies, when they say "You have 3 hours too arrange $100MM in cash" etc. there is no way this money will feet into a suitcase.
A bitcoin private key fits nicely onto a single page of paper. Print it, hand it over to the bad guys, done.
By the time you hit print the bitcoins are only worth $66.5 million. Or was it $135.7 million?
Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#28It's really hard to imagine a trillion dollars, but it's also hard to imagine 7 billion people or 300 million Americans. Usually when we're talking about trillions of dollars we're talking about something at a national or international level, i.e. shared among a large group of people. Dollars per capita is often a better metric because it's normalized to something more tangible. A trillion dollars is about 3200 dolla…
> ... per American taxpayer
Isn't everyone a taxpayer? Or did you only mean "federal taxpayer"? Even then anyone who has a phone is paying federal taxes on the service. And people pay tax on consumption (sales and service taxes), city, county and state taxes, fuel, and the list goes on. I suspect that the vast majority pay taxes several times a month rather than the 1 in 4 you imply!
Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#29It's really hard to imagine a trillion dollars, but it's also hard to imagine 7 billion people or 300 million Americans. Usually when we're talking about trillions of dollars we're talking about something at a national or international level, i.e. shared among a large group of people. Dollars per capita is often a better metric because it's normalized to something more tangible. A trillion dollars is about 3200 dolla…
> ... per American taxpayer Isn't everyone a taxpayer? Or did you only mean "federal taxpayer"? Even then anyone who has a phone is paying federal taxes on the service. And people pay tax on consumption (sales and service taxes), city, county and state taxes, fuel, and the list goes on. I suspect that the vast majority pay taxes several times a month rather than the 1 in 4 you imply!
My daughter doesn't pay taxes. She doesn't earn any money. She's 6.
Re: What does one trillion dollars look like?
#30It's really hard to imagine a trillion dollars, but it's also hard to imagine 7 billion people or 300 million Americans. Usually when we're talking about trillions of dollars we're talking about something at a national or international level, i.e. shared among a large group of people. Dollars per capita is often a better metric because it's normalized to something more tangible. A trillion dollars is about 3200 dolla…
> ... per American taxpayer Isn't everyone a taxpayer? Or did you only mean "federal taxpayer"? Even then anyone who has a phone is paying federal taxes on the service. And people pay tax on consumption (sales and service taxes), city, county and state taxes, fuel, and the list goes on. I suspect that the vast majority pay taxes several times a month rather than the 1 in 4 you imply!
I didn't have a sinister "53 percenter' motive behind using the number of federal income taxpayers; I simply believed it was the relevant statistic when discussing federal government spending.
That said, you're right than 1/4 seems low (even after taking into account minors). Certainly it's fair to count people who don't owe federal income tax but owe payroll taxes as a federal taxpayer, for example,