Monday, February 27, 2012

A picture is worth trillions of words

A reader sent this. For those who believe the soothing assurances that our economy is just peachy, perhaps they should view these schematics. It puts things in perspective.
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A $100 bill.


Ten thousand dollars ($10,000). Approximately one year of work for the average human on the earth.


A million dollars ($1,000,000). 92 years' worth of work for the average person on earth. Not a very big pile.


One hundred million dollars ($100,000,000). Fits nicely on an ISO/Military standard sized pallet.


One billion dollars ($1,000,000,000).


One trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000). When the U.S government speaks about a $1.7 trillion deficit -- this is the volumes of cash the U.S. Government borrowed in 2010 to run itself. Keep in mind it is double stacked pallets of $100 million dollars each, full of $100 dollar bills.


Comparison of $1,000,000,000,000 dollars to a standard-sized American football field and European football field. Say hello to the Boeing 747-400 transcontinental airliner that's hiding on the right. This was until recently the biggest passenger plane in the world.


Fifteen trillion dollars ($15,000,000,000,000) -- The U.S. national debt (credit bill) has just topped the $15 trillion two months before Christmas 2011. Miss Liberty seems rather worried as United States national debt passes 20% of the entire world's combined GDP (Gross Domestic Product). In 2011 the national debt will exceed 100% of GDP, and venture into the 100%+ debt-to-GDP ratio that the European PIIGS have (bankrupting nations).


$114.5 trillion dollars ($114,500,000,000,000) -- U.S. unfunded liabilities. To the right you can see the pillar of cold hard $100 bills that dwarfs the WTC & Empire State Building -- both at one point world's tallest buildings. If you look carefully you can see the Statue of Liberty. The 114.5 Trillion dollar super-skyscraper is the amount of money the U.S. Government knows it does not have to fully fund the Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Social Security, Military and civil servant pensions. The unfunded liability is calculated on current tax and funding inputs, and future demographic shifts in US Population. (Note: On the image below, the size of the base of the money pile is half a trillion, not $1T as on 15T image above. The height is double. This was done to reflect the base of Empire State and WTC more closely.)

[Incidentally this picture was so tall I couldn't "screen capture" it on my computer, so I had to capture it in three parts and paste them together, hence the blue lines.]

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If anyone were to ask my husband and me why we prepare, this encapsulates it in a nutshell. Quite honestly, I don't know how we can avoid an economic collapse in this country... as these pictures illustrate.

11 comments:

  1. The answer then is so simple. Just print $15 trillion and pay it off.

    I'm joking but I bet before this is over that is exactly what will happen. But given our government's past performance I predict that not only will we print the money and create a massive inflationary spiral but that we will also raise taxes thus destroying what is left of our economy AND we will still borrow more money so we can continue to promise free stuff for votes.

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  2. You could make a lot of insulation with a pile of paper that big..

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  3. Powerful~and exactly why I prepare.

    Jennifer

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  4. I saw the exact post on another blog about two weeks ago...just FYI I'm sure the author would enjoy a link to the original article. Just wanted to give you a heads up in the event others mentioned. Enjoy your blog.

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  5. Anon 1:23......she said at the beginning that a reader sent it to her.

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  6. I think the economy collapse has already happened, but The Obama and His minions have been able to keep it hidden behind their curtain of lies. Once it spills out from under the veil of pol-speak and false propaganda we'll all be up to our necks in worthless 100 dollar bills not even fit to eat...

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  7. You can imagine, nevertheless that USA is # 1 in the Global Economy!?!?!

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  8. I'm doing all I can as quickly as I can. I've been planing, praying, collecting, "prepping" for 7-8 years in earnest (MANY years prior to that collecting things and planning alone, until my husband began to realize what was happening and got on board), but sometimes I feel like I'm behind the curve. We are FINALLY in the final stages of moving to a rural location and then I can kick it up into overdrive. I believe God gave me (us) the vision, so I trust Him to get us there, set up and able to do what needs to be done... in time.

    Even so, come Lord Jesus.

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  9. There's even a great book out now on this. I encourage everyone to check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Little-First-Classic-Stories/dp/140486072X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330622171&sr=1-4

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  10. That's because there's only ONE party in this country; THE GOVERNMENT which PRETENDS to be 2 parties. Just look at Romney! He's voted BOTH WAYS on EVERY major issue in his past! He's as "conservative" as Obama is! There's NO DIFFERENCE between him and any Dem! No matter if you vote Left or Right your vote is wasted (except for Ron Paul) or the Libertarians! NONE of the major party candidates will EVER cut spending or seriously downsize the bloated out of control government and corruption and our media controlled by Big business and Big Government in bed together will spend spend spend to make themselves more ca$h until America is bankrupt. RON PAUL 2012!! OR VOTE LIBERTARIAN! The "Lesser of two-evils" is STILL EVIL!!!

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  11. Aw, cum on! It's only money! We can substitute what as known as an umderground economy. People swapping food for rent, or various worker trades for food, etc.
    In a highly taxed country like Sweden, that's what they do just to avoid taxes.

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