billions!

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

The modern world talks extraordinarily huge numbers like billions. Lets figure this out...

1 hour = 3600 seconds
1 day = 86400 seconds
1 year = 31,536,000 seconds
32 x 31,536,000 = 1,009,152,000.
So about a billion seconds ago it was 1978!

So when we talk about the trillion dollar Greek bailout, or the American debt it's incredible.
It would take 32,000 years to spend a dollar a second, assuming you earned $3600/hr, even while sleeping.

Comments

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

It is interesting that at the end of the Clinton administration, once he balanced the budget the debt clock in NY was retired. Once Bush got into power it was put back in service.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

That shows more about the authors of the clock rather than about the nature of the national debt (which I'm sure hasn't stopped increasing even under Clinton).