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Do the math

The Spokesman-Review

I’m convinced most people have no concept of how much a trillion dollars represents, including those in our government. In trying to figure a way to which people might be able to relate, I came up with the concept of how much distance a trillion $1 bills would cover if laid end to end. The following is the result of that process.

A dollar bill measures 6 1/8 inches long. There are 10,344.5 dollars in a mile. One million dollars translates to 96.7 miles. One billion dollars comes to 96,669-plus miles. One trillion dollars would extend a whopping 96,669,728 miles. We’re talking about dollar bills circling the Earth 3,866 times! Our government is projecting a $9 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. This is absolute madness. It’s immoral to saddle the future generations with that kind of debt.

Ken Varcoe

Spokane



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