How much is a trillion.

When we were kids it was not uncommon to discuss how much money some things would cost. It never failed that we would begin with real numbers such as $100.00. To one up the next guy we would move to the thousands, millions, and then billions. When we finally ran out of real numbers we would have to begin making up numbers, like kaziliion, petrillion, buzillion and who knows what other illions a kid can come up with. These numbers would keep going up until finally the infinity number was thrown out. This always seemed to end the discussion, (unless you were with a poor sport that would use infinity time 10).

Now as an adult it seems like we are living in a world with a government that is spending kazillions of dollars that don't exist. Just for kicks I googled the word "how much is infinity" and found some amazing examples that puts this staggering amount into perspective.

So here it goes.

1 trillion dollars

"If you stacked a pile of $1 dollar bills a trillion high beginning from the dawn of civilization, which is about 6000 years, and spent $1 per second till now, you would still have almost 80% left!" (source unknown)

"...this plan will cost taxpayers the equivalent of a million dollars a day for the next 3,000 years to fund a long wish list of items that won’t create jobs." (U. S. Congressman Michael McCaul)

Just to put a trillion dollars in context, if you started spending the day that Jesus was born and you spend a million dollars every single day, you still wouldn't have spent a trillion dollars. This is a lot of money," (Sen Mitch McConnell)

"A million dollars a day for 2,000 years is only three-quarters of a trillion dollars. It's a big number no matter how you slice it," (Temple University math professor and author John Allen Paulos.)

"A million seconds is about 11½ days. A billion seconds is about 32 years, and a trillion seconds is 32,000 years," Paulos said. "People tend to lump them together, perhaps because they rhyme, but if you think of it in terms of a jail sentence, do you want to go to jail for 11½ days or 32 years or maybe 32,000 years? So, they're vastly different, and people generally don't really have a real visceral grasp of the differences among them."

$1 trillion would be enough money to buy about a 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies for every person in the United States. A trillion barrels of oil would — at current consumption levels — fuel the world for about 33 years.
Author David M. Schwartz

As a small business owner, that is struggling to make a living in this tough economy, I have found that by managing the dimes and dollars, I am able to continue to survive. I have learned that in order to make it through the tough times it is necessary to be as lean as possible and make due with what I have. Over the past several months, I have taken inventory of everything that we own within the company, to make sure that there is absolutely no waste. If there is a fitting sitting in one of the trucks, it is cleaned up and put to use. Instead of buying new equipment, we have fixed up what we have, if it is too expensive, we have rented or found a way to trade work or equipment with some of the other contractors out there. Recently I had a discussion with one of my competitors about trading out some of the in-house work that we do with some of the in-house work that they self perform in order to keep as many of our employees working and keep costs low. The other thing that has changed is that I have gone back into the field doing as much of the work myself as I can, and guess what, things business wise seem to be improving.

I have always remembered the examples of my Grandpa Stubbs and Mecham. Grandpa Stubbs raised a large family during the recession, but still managed to work a full day and keep the family farm from falling into foreclosure. It must have been tough for him to get up well before sunrise, and go to bed way after dark, but it is what he had to do to support his family. The thing that impresses me the most of his example is that he did not turn to the Government for support, or anyone else. The family was required to pitch in and work hard to eek out a living, and many sacrifices were made from everyone in order to get through the depression in tact.

Now back to the Trillion dollars. Why is it that our Government is so determined that the only way to get through tough economic times is by spending everything that we don't have. Bailouts do not work, they only reward the people and businesses that made excessively risky decisions by saving them from ruin, at the expense of those that were more conservative in their living and investments. Just this week I had an experience that puts this into perspective. I have a good friend that was in the market to buy a home. He had 100% cash to pay for this house (investment). The house that he wished to purchase was listed on the market for less than 1 day. It was sold on a short sale to the first bid. The agent and the bank accepted this offer immediately without considering any other offers or waiting to see if there would have been any activity on the listing. If this were a home that was being sold by a private party, they would have entertained as many offers as possible, and let the market establish the true value of what the house was worth. Instead, the bank (that had taken bailout money, and has a promise by the government to purchase troubled assets) took this offer, losing possibly tens of thousands of dollars. How does this affect us? The money difference is somewhere in this trillion dollar bailout. The neighbors are now subjected to lower comps in their neighborhoods, making their houses worth less. At what time will we wake up and demand that the government stop trying to solve our problems. I am confident that we as a nation have the ability to solve our own problems. It may be difficult, and we will definitely have to sacrifice or maybe start over, but I am confident that the answer to our problems lie within the walls of our own homes.

During these times families can pull together, neighbors can help neighbors, and companies can form alliances to ensure the survival of their businesses.

One of my favorite scriptures is in the Doctrine and Covenants 42:42 it says
Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer.

Grandpa Stubbs lived into his late 90's. My memories of him are of him working in his garden, or preparing food that he had grown himself, in the home that he build. On his farm there were fences that were built with his own hands, a tractor that was kept up by himself parked in the apple orchard that he planted, harvested and watered by the sweat of his brow. I wish that the Government could have taken a field trip to Parrowan to visit Grandpa, to see what it took to manage during a financial downturn. Maybe if this were possible, they would turn off the printing presses, and roll up their sleeves to truly find the real answer to surviving a recession.