Deficit Envisioned

Perhaps yesterday you heard on the news that the budget deficit this year is a nice, tidy 1.29 trillion dollars. For the second year in a row.

That’s the difference between what the US government is spending and what it is taking in.

1.29 trillion dollars!

For a sense of proportion, of what this number actually represents, consider this:

1.29 trillion dollars =

$ 1,290,000,000,000.00

That’s a lot of zeroes.

How much money would you have to spend every day, since, say, the birth of Christ, to equal this amount of our annual deficit?

$1,000.00?

More?

$10,000.00?

More.

$50,000.00 a day?

Hahahaha. Even more.

Try $1,750,000.00 a day, every day, from the birth of Christ, AD 1, to now, October 16, 2010.

That’s 1.75 million dollars a day!

Any one of us, should we come into 1.75 million dollars, would consider it a windfall, a blessing beyond all blessings, a take-this-job-and-shove-it and trot-the-globe gift. Some of us might be lucky enough just making 1.75 million dollars over the course of our lifetime.

But this figure is what you’d have to spend, every single day over the past two millennia, to equal the United States Government annual budget deficit.

Incredible.

Bring on the November elections!


* * *

My calculations are approximate. The exact figure might be 1.8 million dollars a day or 1.6 million dollars a day. Not much of a difference, though.

To calculate the number of days –

2010 x 365 = 733,650

Add 500 for the approximate number of extra days due to leap years.

Ignore the hundred day discrepancy between the traditional day of Christ’s birth (Dec 25) and today’s date.

Number of days = 734,150

Break out your scientific calculator and divide 1.29 trillion by 734,150 and round.

Voila!

Bring on the November elections!


* * *

Another point of interest. What if you divided the deficit figure by the number of Americans. What is the share of the deficit that falls on you?

This one’s easy.

Divide 1.29 trillion by 300 million.

My scientific calculator is telling me that the answer is 4,300.

So, each and every one of us has $4,300 hanging over our heads this year alone. That comes to $11.78 a day, every day, day after day, week after week, month after month, this year.

Did I say, “Bring on the November elections!” yet?