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Visualizing the national debt
To the Editor:
A recent reader wrote a letter to help the masses of people understand what $16 trillion is so we could better comprehend the magnitude of our national debt (“Understanding the national debt,” West Newsmagazine, Feb. 6). I would like to offer one more way.
A stack of brand new $100 bills that is 1 foot tall would total $1 million. A stack of $100 bills therefore that is 1,000 feet tall, or as tall as the Empire State Building, would total $1 billion, since a billion is 1,000 million.
One thousand stacks of those $100 bills, each piled 1,000 feet tall, would equal $1 trillion, since a trillion is 1,000 billion.
The $16 trillion national debt, therefore, would be 16,000 stacks of bills as tall as the Empire State Building. Picture that!
This visualization should help everyone understand the magnitude of our debt.
George Biderman
Des Peres
1 Comments
Mr. Biderman is apparently using the well-known “DC method” to compute his visualization exercise. By using the “real numbers” method, I computed the following:
1. The thickness of United States currency in 0.0043 inches per note.
2. A stack of $100 notes that is one foot tall, therefore, contains approximately $279,070 (rounding up so I don’t have to include the thickness of coins!).
3. The Empire State Building is well over 1,000 feet tall (although it is 1,050 feet to the 85th floor observation deck), but I’ll stick with the 1,000 foot number in my computations.
4. A 1,000-foot tall stack of $100 notes thus contains $279,069,770.00 (here I have eliminated the rounding).
5. To reach $16 trillion requires 57,333 1/3 stacks of $100 notes, each 1,000 feet tall, or in excess of 3 1/2 times MORE than Mr. Biderman suggests.
(No disrespect to Mr. Biderman is intended: I simply tried to inject a little levity while correcting the mathematics…)