Diggin' a Hole...

I was just reading that as of Friday, the national debt of the United States stood at $ 7, 924, 890, 927, 754.51… Now that’s a heck of a lot of numbers on parade. I think the precision is pretty funny though. Fifty-One cents. Almost Eight Trillion Dollars, but don’t forget that half dollar and the single, solitary penny. I feel like someone should cop up the .51 to even things off, heck, I’ll do it. I’m noble like that. I’m willing to help out my Southern neighbours (even though I spell neighbours with a "u"). Although, on the other hand, Dick Cheney could always just give another 49 cents to Halliburton and make it an even 755.00, I mean, why not? The victims of the hurricanes are going bankrupt, but those contracts just keep getting handed over without a bid.

But then I started thinking, you know, Seven Trillion, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Four Billion, Eight Hundred and Ninety Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Seven Thousand, Seven Hundred and Fifty-Four Dollars, and Fifty-One cents is a lot of money – I don’t think I’ll ever make that much myself. Imagine writing that on a cheque? (I would still put squiggly lines at the beginning so no one could add any extra numbers). But, I started getting curious, if that was the American Debt on Friday, what was it now? So, I found this American Debt Clock, which is just like a normal clock, except completely different. As of this morning, the American National Debt had marched onward as to war, to the tune of $7, 930, 261, 983, 734.81… I mean, Wow! That was quite the weekend. I splurged a bit more this weekend then I had intended to, but no where close to Five and a half Billion Dollars. And according to this site, the debt has increased by 1.5 Billion dollars per day since October 2004. Wow. That’s staggering.

But don’t you think that these numbers are just too much? I don’t think people worry about deficits like this because it just doesn’t seem real. Who can even fathom a Trillion? Back in University, Jeff and I decided to do some calculations to put Millions and Billions in perspective. We figured that everyone has a handle on Millions, but no one really appreciates how much more a billion is than a Million. You with me? So we figured out that when you are born, if you started counting your age in seconds, you reach your Millionth second on your eleventh day on Earth. In comparison, you won’t live your Billionth second until you’re almost 32 years old. Twelve days… Thirty-Two Years, that’s the difference between a Million and a Billion. As for a Trillion… well, it doesn’t take a math genius to tell you, you’d have to live to be 32 Thousand years old to hit your Trillionth second.

Currently, as of 12:21:45 PM, October 4, 2005, taking into account my being born at 1:56 AM July 11, 1978 and an eight hour difference from my birth time-zone, I have reached 858,824,745.. 46.. 47.. 48.. .. .. .. .. .. Jeez, that’s depressing.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute,
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the world, and everything that’s in it,
and what is more, you’ll be a man, my son.