There are over 100 billion (100,000,000,000) stars in our Milky Way galaxy. There are over 150 billion (150,000,000,000) galaxies estimated in the entire known universe, which is still less than a trillion.
One million is 1,000 x 1000. One billion is one million x 1,000. One trillion is 1,000,000 x 1,000,000. That’s right, one million a million times! A one with 12 zeros after it.
Our federal government has a debt of $28 trillion that's growing by the second. That’s $85,500 for each of our 330 million citizens. The interest accumulated alone per year alone is $368,000,000,000 ($368 billion dollars).
What gives the federal government the right to burden our children and children’s children with that debt? That’s definitely government overreach with our money.
But if you are still unsure, maybe this will convince you.
Money Stacks Reaching for the Moon
One way to better understand large numbers is to compare the heights of stacks of varying numbers of dollar bills.
- The thickness of a single one dollar bill measures .0043 inches.
- The height of a stack of 100 one dollar bills measures about one half inch.
- The height of a stack of 1,000 one dollar bills measures about 4 inches.
- The height of a stack of 1,000,000 (one million) one dollar bills measures about four thousand, three hundred (4,300) inches or 358 feet – about the height of a 30 to 35 story building.
- The height of a stack of 100,000,000 (one hundred million) one dollar bills measures 35,851 feet or 6.79 miles. This would reach from Earth’s surface to the approximate altitude at which commercial jetliners fly.
- The height of a stack of 1,000,000,000 (one billion) one dollar bills measures 358,510 feet or 67.9 miles. This would reach from Earth’s surface into the lower portion of the thermosphere one of the major outer layers of Earth’s atmosphere. If you fly to this altitude, you get astronaut wings.
- The height of a stack of 100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) one dollar bills measures 6,786.6 miles. A column of bills this high would extend 28 times higher than the orbiting International Space Station.
- The height of a stack of 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) one dollar bills measures about 68,000 miles. This would reach more than one fourth the way from Earth to the moon.
Our national debt is rocketing out into deep space leaving the moon and fiscal soundness far behind.
Back on Earth, a football field entirely filled and stacked with a trillion dollar bills would reach 831 feet high. That’s about half the height of the Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building until 2010.
Had enough? Any way you look at it, it is a lot of money. It is massive government overreach and must be stopped. Article V of the U.S. Constitution gives citizens the tool to stop the excessive government spending that is a denial of the consent of the governed and a usurpation of authority with the people's money.
Citizens concerned for the future of our nation--under a federal government that's increasingly bloated, corrupt, reckless, and invasive--have a constitutional option. We can call an Article V Convention of States to bring power back to the states and the people, where it belongs.
Be a 21st Century patriot. Join us and sign the petition for an Article V Convention of States and bring our government and its debt back to Earth.
