Just How Much Is $1.1 Trillion?

James Grant:

Amanda Shaw @ First Things:

It’s 1.1 times ten to the twelfth power, or 1,100,000,000,000. To put that in perspective, the Family Research Council has pulled out a calculator and crunched some numbers. With $1.1 trillion, the grand total so far of Obama’s stimulus plan, we could pave the entire US interstate highway system with 23.5-karat gold, we could build 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses, we could hire 1.9 million teachers.

To put this further in perspective:

* The Marshall Plan cost $12.7 billion ($115.3 billion, adjusted for inflation)
* The space race cost $36.4 billion ($237 billion with inflation)
* The Korean War cost $54 billion ($454 billion with inflation)
* The New Deal cost $32 billion (estimated; $500 billion with inflation)
* The invasion of Iraq cost $551 billion ($597 billion with inflation)
* The Vietnam War cost $111 billion ($698 billion with inflation)

So, the total cost of the Marshall Plan, the Korean War, and the New Deal—using all figures adjusted for inflation—is less than that of the current economic stimulus package. That’s how much $1.1 trillion is.

Can you believe that! As if that isn’t staggering enough, the follow up post by Mary Rose Rybak point to a video explaining that $1 trillion is more than $1 million spent per day since Christ’s birth.