During a discussion with my kids (teenagers) a couple of days ago it dawned on me that the financial numbers being thrown around by our politicians were meaningless to them. The following illustration proved useful for bringing the numbers down to earth;
If somebody promised to pay you $1 billion at $1 million per year, how many years would it take to get your billion dollars?
The kids were very excited to get to do some math, but they didn't let it distract too much from our political discussion. If those million dollar payments started the day you were born and your name was Methuselah, you would never see the whole thing. It would take a thousand years.
To make $1 trillion at $1 million per year would take a million years. I think we have lost touch with, or become numb to the enormous sums of money our politicians are treating like loose change.
Obama's dismissal of McCain's outcry over $18 billion pork-barrel dollars seems like an indication that one of them is not good at math. If I had to pick one of them to trust with my money I'd probably go with the guy that thinks $18 billion dollars in pork-barrel spending is a lot of money. Could I trust the guy that doesn't think $18 billion of our money is a lot? You probably know what I'm thinking.
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