Getting Perspective on $1 Trillion

We are ill-equipped to deal with huge numbers. Many of couldn’t tell the difference between 100,000 people and 1 million people. We are notoriously bad at estimating, conceiving of and comprehending large numbers. This makes it that much easier to pull the wool over our eyes when it comes to budgets and finance. Take, for instance, the $1 trillion figure being bandied about these days. What does one TRILLION dollars look like? (PageTutor) provides a handy visual mnemonic, starting with a single $100 bill and working up from there all the way to $1 trillion. The graphics are excellent[1], but I find that little descriptions also go a long way:

• $10,000 fits in a pocket
• $1,000,000 fits in a briefcase
• $100,000,000 fits on a pallet
• $1,000,000,000 takes up a whole room
• $1,000,000,000,000 takes up a whole warehouse