Long, long ago, in a faraway state, there was a magazine named (if I remember correctly) "Saturday Review." One issue had an article about what one billion hamburgers really amounted to; McDonalds in those days listed how many "billion served," rather than just wimping out with "billions and billions served." The author's concluding point was that numbers much over a million simply don't register with most people and for quantities larger than a million, we should just call it "lotsa." As in the Earth is lotsa years old, there's lotsa people on the planet... and now, the financial bailout is going to take lotsa dollars.
I don't remember all the examples the writer used for illustrating the magnitude of a billion hamburgers (c'mon, that was 35 years ago), but I do remember being fascinated and amused by considering what a billion really meant in physical terms I could picture if not really relate to. Now picture 700 billion (and that's just the first guesstimate; I don't doubt it will inflate from there).
What could you buy for $700 billion? Well, for starters, Denmark. Twice.
Lotsa years ago, in a galaxy lotsa space away...
ReplyDeleteLockwood, if you do want more traffic from the GBS, you might consider a post for the next Accretionary Wedge (unless you have a space one to submit today or tomorrow). Check out the links on many GBSers recent posts. Lotsa stuff going on...