Many state and local government expenditures are in millions. It used to be that federal government expenditures were in billions. Some seven decades ago, Senator Everett Dirksen is reported to have said: “A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

Now, the federal government deals in trillions of dollars. The federal debt is currently $30.2 trillion, which is 42% more than it was just three years ago.

A million dollars has six zeros, $1,000,000. A billion adds three more zeros, $1,000,000,000. A trillion adds another three zeros, $1,000,000,000,000. I think an easy way to get a handle on such large amounts is by expressing them as a measure of time.

For example, 1,000,000 seconds/60 seconds in a minute/60minutes in an hour/24 hours a day = 11.6 days. Knowing there are 365 days in a year, a billion seconds = 31.7 years, and a trillion seconds = 31,700 years. Measuring money in time, the current federal debt of $30.2 multiplied by 31,700 years = 957,340 years! By using time to measure trillions of dollars, it puts the federal government’s unsustainable finance mess in perspective.