Bailout Numbers Hard to Imagine

I just saw this story on Bill Koenig's World Watch Daily. It's from Bloomberg.com. They say the federal government has "spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year..." I think most people (including myself) have a difficult time relating to the magnitude of that number. This is the kind of number scientists and engineers write in scientific notation as 1.28 x 10¹³. Written out, it looks like this:

12,800,000,000,000

That's still hard to put into perspective, so I wondered how many years it would take if we counted to this number in seconds. Turns out (if I did this right) that if you count once every second, it would take about 405,608 years. Even if you counted by thousands every second you wouldn't finish in your lifetime. You probably wouldn't even make it a quarter of the way there.

Now that we have this perspective, we can understand just how reckless and irresponsible most of our politicians are. It is utterly ludicrous.

I don't know what else to say...

...except that if you are a Christian, it is imperative that you remain steadfast in your faith in God's plan of redemption.

Matthew 6:31, 33 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Luke 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

***(added on 5/12/09)*** Another way of looking at this that I heard recently is this. If $1 million were spent every day since the incarnation of Jesus Christ, you still would not have made it to your first $1 trillion yet. (In fact it only comes out to about $730 billion which sounds like the amount spent on just one of the many bailouts Congress has recently approved.)