So, two hours ago the US House approved a $787 billion Economic Stimulus Bill.


Some of the stuff the bill includes...

-Package of tax cuts: $287 billion
-$27 billion on roads and bridges
-$87 billion for Medicaid coverage
-$40 billion+ clean energy and efficiency programs
-$11 billion on a new electricity-transmission system

Now, all that is fine and dandy. Help the 20 million+ "jobless workers".
Somehow making up more money will help the already inflating dollar... I honestly don't understand it %100 person.


Clickhere for more news on that story.

But! Here's the thing I'm shocked about... billion.
Billion, with a B.

How much is a billion? I went to wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,000,000,000_(number ) to get a sense of scale.

Time:

* 1bill seconds is about 31.7 years.
* About 1bill minutes ago, the Roman Empire was flourishing. (109 minutes is roughly 1,900 years.)
* About 1bil hours ago, modern human beings and their ancestors were living in the Stone Age (more precisely, the Middle Paleolithic). (109 hours is roughly 114,000 years.)
* About 1bil days ago, Australopithecus, an ape-like creature related to an ancestor of modern humans, roamed the African savannas. (109 days is roughly 2.7 million years.)
* About 1bil months ago, dinosaurs walked the earth during the late Cretaceous. (109 months is roughly 82 million years.)
* About 1bil years ago, the first multicellular organisms appeared on Earth.
* The universe is currently thought to be about 13.7 × 109 years old.

Distance:

* 1bil centimeters is about the distance from Chicago to Tokyo.
* 1bil inches is 15,783 miles, more than halfway around the world and sufficient to reach any point on the globe from any other point.
* 1bil metres is almost three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
* 1bil kilometers is over six times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

One billion is one million MILLION. Go to paint, and make 10 dots. Take those 10 dots and make 10 more of them to make 100. Do the same with the 100 to make 1000. Do the same with the 1000 to make 10,000 excreta excreta until you have one million.

And that's 1/1,000,000 of ONE billion.
Times that by 700 and add 87 more.

787 billion dollars. It... astounds me. It truly does. Am I think too hard about this? What do you think of the number 787 billion?

I'm just disgusted with what the banks did with the bailout money. They lined their pockets with it instead of using it to do what they were supposed to do. And apparently, a good amount of it was spent on expensive prostitution, too.

Your tax dollars at work: Getting Wall Street laid.

Originally Posted by Insane Cricket

I'm just disgusted with what the banks did with the bailout money. They lined their pockets with it instead of using it to do what they were supposed to do. And apparently, a good amount of it was spent on expensive prostitution, too.

Your tax dollars at work: Getting Wall Street laid.

Now that might just be a rumor. People and companies had to have actually put this money into their companies, else the economy would be in an even worse state. At least that's what I would guess. o_o

But damn, that's a lot of money.

One billion is 1000 million in America. 1,000,000,000 = 1 trillion.

Still it's a lot of money that's going to waste (in my opinion).

Originally Posted by Smellerbee

One billion is 1000 million in America. 1,000,000,000 = 1 trillion.

Still it's a lot of money that's going to waste (in my opinion).

1,000,000 = one million
1,000,000,000 = one billion (bi = thousand times million)
1,000,000,000,000 = 1 trillion (tri = million times million

Originally Posted by Bartuc

1,000,000 = one million
1,000,000,000 = one billion (bi = thousand times million)
1,000,000,000,000 = 1 trillion (tri = million times million

Haha oh wow! I'm terrible with numbers.

One-hundred BILLION DOLLARS.

Originally Posted by Risque

Now that might just be a rumor. People and companies had to have actually put this money into their companies, else the economy would be in an even worse state. At least that's what I would guess. o_o

But damn, that's a lot of money.

Yeah... I'm pretty sure that's all a rumor. The companies are doing their best, though. Some have gotten rid of their private jets.

Just a quick rant about the clean efficiancy or whateva, i was outraged because local people started moaning when they wanted to put them wind mill things up that generate electricity
they said it could ruin the country side...
what the hell do you think would be of the country side if we carry on with all the crap we spilling out our cars :@ argh.

anyways yes, 787billion is a massive amount of money, I would not even consider to own that much money. or anything of that amount of things!!!!
I wonder how many cells are part of your body,... i might look it up :P

That's BIG money.
I have no say on what the government gives or the money the bankcs put to stimulus.
I personally believe they know better than we do, after all, how many of us has had a chance to run a country?

It's not going to work fast enough and a lot of the money is going to pointless things that don't really matter now. like art, no offense, but right now our economy is more important than drawing a picture.

I was really surprised they actually got through with passing it. But I had a feeling that the money won't reach the right people. Like that type of stimulus plan seems like it could backfire on us. But I wouldn't really know since I've never run a country before. And about those banks that were 'rumored' to have done with our bailout money. I'm disgusted as well. I watched one of the meetings when one of the companies were asking for more money and then one of the men go 'So, you want this amount money after flying on your private jet?'. It was quite invigorating to hear something like that. Let's just hope for the best and maybe in the end this will work out.

Our national debt is in the ten trillions, lol... they recently had to take the dollar sign off the ticker that keeps track in order to make room for another digit.

It makes me think about the people who had to actually make that decision. It's not playing around with something small. That is 787 billion dollars. Could you imagine having to be the person, to agree or disagree with the choices people are making for the community. To say alright pay this much down, and then it will come back ten fold within the next some odd years.

That has to be rough! But it's good that they're helping. If I read it right they are anyways.

But yaa, I can't imagine that amount of money. Nor where they would even keep it all. Just proves once again that money controls all. :sarcasm: