$23,000,000,000,000
The national debt is fast approaching $23 trillion, and there no longer seems to be a major political party determined to address that problem. How big is a trillion? We hear words like billion or trillion thrown around on the news like they are talking about a billion as pocket change and a trillion as the cost of a house. These numbers are not bigger than most people can truly comprehend. How big is a trillion? For starters, just look at it: $1,000,000,000,000 That's a lot of zeros! If you're middle class in this country, you might make $100,000, while a college student with a decent job might make $10,000 Let's look at those together: $1,000,000,000,000 $100,000 $10,000 Here's another way of looking at it: 1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 32 years, and a trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years. ...