Billions and Trillions of Dollars Explained
The American people have been gradually been "accustomed" to not understand how much money Billions and Trillions of dollars actually are. So, for those that have been conditioned to think of billions to be chump change, this is for you.
Currently, even though the U.S. has about 130+ million people / families filing tax returns, just under 100 million actually have a tax liability (means that they actually pay taxes). This makes it somewhat easy for me to illustrate this.
So for every "American Taxpayer Unit" that actually pays taxes....
| $1 Billion | = | $10 per "Taxpayer" |
| $10 Billion | = | $100 per "Taxpayer" |
| $100 Billion | = | $1,000 per "Taxpayer" |
| $1 Trillion | = | $10,000 per "Taxpayer" |
This should definitely wake anyone up to how much money our government is costing us. For those who will complain and say the numbers are skewed, just divide the number by 3 and that is the cost per citizen in the United States (So 1 trillion is $3,333.33 per citizen).
So, just to drive this home, here are some stats that came out over the last decade or so.
Sept. 10, 2001 - $2.3 Trillion - The pentagon announced that it "lost" 2.3 Trillion Dollars - That is $23,000 per "Taxpayer" or $7,666.66 per U.S. Citizen it "lost??".
April 03 - June 04 - Over $12 Billion - The U.S. shipped over $12 Billion by plane to Iraq - over $9 billion unaccounted for. The estimated weight of those notes - over 15,000 tonnes!
Sept 2008 - $700 Billion Bailout - President Bush pushes for a $700 Billion Bailout which passes congress easily despite huge citizen opposition - $7,000 per "Taxpayer" or $2,333 per U.S. Citizen.
Feb 17, 2009 - $787 Billion Stimulus - President Obama signed his $787 Billion Stimulus Bill into Law - $7,870 per "Taxpayer" or $2,623.33 per U.S. Citizen.
July 2009 - $23.7 Trillion in Bailout money - Bloomberg releases numbers it got that the total Bailout has reached $23.7 Trillion (no newer numbers were ever released, not that I could find anyway) - $237,000 per "Taxpayer" or $79,000 per U.S. Citizen.
President Bush Debt Increase $4.6 Trillion - During President Bush's 8 years in office, the "fiscal conservative" increased the National Debt by $4.6 Trillion Dollars - $46,000 per "Taxpayer" or $15,333 per U.S. Citizen.
President Obama Debt Increase (so far) $4.2 Trillion - As of August 2011, 2.5 years into his Presidency, The U.S. Debt increased $4.2 Trillion so far under President Obama's watch - That is $42,000 per "Taxpayer" or $14,000 per U.S. Citizen.
National Debt on August 17, 2011 - $14.6 Trillion - This is $146,000 per "Taxpayer" or $48,666 per U.S. Citizen.
