A Trillion is a Big Number

Warning: there is math ahead. I will do most of it for you, but still... fair warning.

TRILLION!!!

Trillion. A word meaning a number. A large number but do you know how large? Do you know how long a trillion seconds is?

About 31,688 years.

TRILLION!!!

So, If I paid you a dollar a second, it would take that long to give you a trillion dollars. Nearly 32 millenia is a long time. "In that time Polaris would move and Vega would become the North Star, then Polaris would move back and then move on and Alpha Cephi would become the new North Star." (per R.A.H. in Expanded Universe.)

TRILLION!!!

Imagine making 3600 bucks an hour?!?! WOW!!! Frankly, a heck of a lot of folks would be pretty happy to make 36 bucks an hour, but I digress.

That amount of time referenced above is nearly 16 times longer than Christianity has been around. Its about 150 times as long as our nation has existed. It is a thousand generations by some definitions.

TRILLION!!!

A trillion is a big number, sure, but how big? What is 1% of a trillion? 10 billion. another big number but not as big as a trillion obviously. But how much is that?

Lets break it down some more. One percent of 10 billion is 100 million. We know what a 100 million is right? That's a Powerball win, in terms of real life money. But how much is it? One percent of 100 million is a million. A million, everyone understands that, right? Who Wants to be a Millionaire?!? Rest easy Mr. Philbin.

TRILLION!!!

Did you know that if you had a million dollars invested at a 1% APR interest return (puny, but becoming too common for us commoners) you would earn ten thousand dollars in interest. Just for it sitting there. Ten grand isn't a lot, is it? Do you just have ten grand laying around? So you understand that for every 1% of a million that you were to get interest on, you would get ten grand? So, 5% would be 50 grand, 10% would be 100 grand and so on. Follow? Good.

But did you know that a trillion is a million millions? One million times one million equals one trillion.

TRILLION!!!

Its all still just big stupid numbers. But please dear reader continue, if it seems interesting to you...

Stipulate 300 million U.S. population (I know, it is above that, even if the recent Census is probably FUBAR due to bad management.) According to our stats above, 300 million is 1% of 30 Billion. That would mean 30 billion is 1% of 3 trillion, right?

TRILLION!!!

Do we know what 1% of 1% is? One ten-thousandths. Invert that and we can say that 3 trillion is ten thousands times as much as 300 million. So 300 million people would each have to pay ten grand to equal 3 trillion. That is, if all there was that 3 trillion and those trillions had no interest coming due on them.

So, without interest, a family of four would have to pay out 40 grand as their even, fair share of the assumed and stipulated three trillion dollars. Forty grand is about the average (according to the last Census) yearly income for a household. So, a year's earnings by a family of four would cover their fair share of the 3 trillion, without interest. Follow?

TRILLION!!!

So if they were trying to pay 6 trillion, that family would pay 80 grand. Twelve trillion, they would pay 160 grand. Eighteen, they would pay 240 grand. Again, this is assuming no interest on those trillions. But lets go back and look at that interest. That 18 trillion divides up to be 60 grand per person as a fair share.

Lets assume that puny interest of 1% on that original 3 trillion. Easy, from our calculations above: 30 billion. So, per person in a 300 million population would be a hundred bucks. The family of four's share would be 400 bucks. A lot less that before, but remember, that is only the interest on the 3 trillion, not the 3 trillion itself. And we are not at 3 trillion anymore, are we?

TRILLION!!!

But as we said, 1% is puny interest. Your credit cards get a whole lot more than that, your mortgage gets more than that, everybody gets more than that. YOU don't, but remember... the whole system is setup for the accrual of power and profit for people that are NOT you; you just get the bill. I digress. So lets look at 5%: that would be 500 bucks per person, 2 grand per family to pay just the 5% interest on the 3 trillion.

But unless that 3 trillion got smaller, that would be 5% forever. FOREVER!!! Unless you reduce the principle debt. Like the fact you are paying for that extravagant Christmas of five years ago...

TRILLION!!!

Accordingly, if that was 6 trillion, that interest payment at 5% becomes a grand per person, the family share 4 grand. Twelve trillion becomes 2 grand per person, 8 grand per family. Eighteen trillion becomes 3 grand per person, 12 grand per family. That's just the interest every year, not the basic trillions of debt.

Twelve grand per family. Almost one third of the average yearly income for that family. Over four months of work, just to pay their fair share of the 5% interest on 18 trillion. The same 18 trillion that on which, they, by fairness, owe 240 grand as a share. Six full years wages to pay the principle share without interest, but with interest, amortized... now MY brain hurts, and I am a wonk that likes math. At this point I begin to see why the apathy towards the Federal Budget is so pervasive.

TRILLION!!!

But we have forgotten something. That family. Food, house, clothes, utilities, basics, not luxuries. And taxes, got to pay those... sales, gas, utilities, income...taxes, taxes, taxes. So, while that family pays its interest and tries to scrape for the principle to pay that fair share debt off, what do they pay the rest of their bills with?

Lets go back to the 1% interest of a basic 3 trillion debt. Family of four pays 400 bucks for that interest. Family needs to cough up 40 grand for their fair share. A years wages, but just tighten that belt and eat dirt. Live in a cardboard box. Wear rags, but not nice rags! Can't afford them this year!

TRILLION!!!

But a year later, you paid your fair share and even collected enough aluminum cans to cover the interest, assuming you kept your job without showering and dirt was nutritional enough. So cool, it is all paid, the whole three trillion - or at least your family's share. Time for a shower, a cheeseburger and a place to get out of the rain! HUZZAH!!!

But wait. During that time, another 3 trillion was racked up. WHAT! You exclaim, we just paid three trillion and I am all itchy and need a shave. And dirt tastes like dirt! WTF!?!?!?! WHAT ABOUT MY (expletive) CHEESEBURGER!!! BLEEP BLEEP EXPLETIVE BLEEP!!!!

TRILLION!!!

Back to those seconds, the clock going tic-tock. Three trillion, in seconds, is:

95,066 years, 2 months, 16 days, 20 minutes, 6 seconds, or thereabouts. If I paid a dollar a second, that's how long it would take me to pay off 3 trillion, without interest. That's all day, everyday for almost a hundred thousand years.

TRILLION!!! (For the people in the back; y'all best start listening before you can't even afford a cardboard box!)

There you have it. some groundwork on what Trillions amount to. And those Trillions mount with just a sweep of a pen across paper, the result of decisions made by and large by people who will not have to live with the consequences of their actions, nor live to see those outcomes.

I am against stealing from my kids and grandkids. I have CONSISTENTLY been so for decades. I have also raged against the insane unsustainability of the whole crony-driven system, again consistently. Intellectual honesty requires it.

TRILLION!!!

That being said... I would rather the trillions went to individual citizens to use as they need instead of bombing brown children, supporting apartheid here and abroad, a corrupt justice system, corporate cronies, wannabe feudalists or a lot of other things that both sides of the political aisle gleefully fund for their own power and profit, but which do little to better the lot of the lives of the bulk of the citizenry.

TRILLION!!!

If we are going to do it, if we are going to run the printers non-stop, there are worse reasons to do it for which we already activate the money machine incessantly. Doing it to benefit individual citizens is a lesser evil. Addressing systemic and philosophical flaws at every level on a wide scale would be better, but that is unlikely to happen any time soon. But using the money as evilly as possible - as a norm - is far worse than direct payments to citizens. After all, the citizen is the one on the hook for it, not the bosses.

TRILLION!!!

Consistency... man, THAT is a dead concept, eh? I don't care who is in charge, they are going to catch grief from me because I am a free citizen, not a toadie, not a sycophant. I understand what a Trillion is, so too should they!

The current big number is a lot bigger than I have described here... and it is going to get more so. Unless we come up with a better idea, per Sir Ian Hacking's philosophy: For a true paradox, a new and better idea must be created to solve it.

TRILLION!!! (There goes your grandkids' future, without their consent.)

If you are keeping count, that is only 18 "TRILLION!!!" so far, which is ten short of the current mess. If you thought that was annoying, imagine if I had tried shoehorning in ten more!?!

TRILLION!!! (Couldn't resist! These trillions are like peanuts!)

In 2020, several trillions worth of "stimulus" was rolled out. It was an emergency, people were and are struggling. Remember, that is one of the things we can justify going into debt for as individuals. And it could be said a nation can look at a situation similarly and I will not argue otherwise at this time. All that said, of those trillions, how much was direct payments to citizens? The very citizens who are on the hook for the whole shebang?

Less than one quarter of a trillion dollars. Yes, 250 billion is a chunk of change. Sure, some more got put into some small business hands, a little more into unemployment... but of all those trillions, where did the majority of the money go? As far as that goes... how much of those theoretical direct payments or direct payment-adjacent funds ended up on the same hands as the bulk of the rest of the emergency trillions?

TRILLION (Slipped in another one; it is just that easy!)

Yes, your suspicions are correct. The extraction of wealth from an economy - to be replaced by fiat currency - is a topic for another day. For now, let us stay with our trillions.

We saw another extra trillion-ish go out the door late in the year, and now another couple extra trillions are on the table. That is in addition to the usual deficit bit. More trillions slated for the coming months...

TRILLION!!! (I could cut and paste these all day, but I don't I actually type each one, We must be careful not to become that which we oppose after all.)

A thousand times a thousand times a thousand. Are those seconds ticking on a clock or is it the sound of the blood of our future bleeding onto the floor? The thing is, this current emergency is not even responsible for 75 percent of the trillions issue at hand. What was the rest of it used for? Could there have been better ways to solve the problems it was spent on that didn't require selling the souls of future generations for current comfort?

TRILLION!!!

Look at it this way: when times are good, how much debt should you personally carry? As an aside, don't you think it is strange that if you don't carry debt, you end up with a less than ideal credit rating? Food for thought and something for another day. Anyway...

When times are bad, how much debt should you carry? The simple answer is "as little as possible." Same as good times. It is obvious that if you are running high debt in good times, that is going to kick you right in the teeth in bad times. Making investments during good times is a lot more rational, because when the bad times come, you have those to help. That is tough if the so-called "good times" don't yield enough to survive, much less thrive. Come the bad times, the whole thing becomes unsustainable.

TRILLION!!!

I can't realistically get to 28 of those break lines, I just can't. And we cannot realistically go on extracting wealth from the future for the benefit of a few while dunning the people who have already been sucked dry for needing some help, those same people who will ultimately be on the hook for all of it anyway.

I have my own answers, and I have been implementing them for years. I do not have them for everyone else. All I have is the numbers, and they look bad, And the nonsense that goes on to create those numbers looks even worse. What we have is unsustainable.

TRILLION!!! (I am actually getting tired of making these. I wish the bosses did.)

Other emergencies both of our own making and those that will just happen are always on the horizon. We will have to meet them or fail our extinction test. The untenable economies of life, exacerbated by insane debt could pose one of those emergencies; it has happened before.

Not in a million years could we sort this out without radical changes to something...

And at a dollar a second, what we got going as debt currently...

Would take a million years to pay off. I don't have that kind of time. Neither do you.

TRILLION!!! (I give up, there are too many. Type up more of your own if you want them.)