As I have mentioned before, one of my Facebook Friends has posted the following observation:
People don't have a strong intuitive sense of how much bigger one billion is than one million. One million seconds is about 11 days. One billion seconds is about 31.5 years.
I tried to find out who had first launched this observation into the online world of social media, but I wasn't too successful. I don't think that I found the ultimate source, but a posting by Paul Franz, on the former Twitter, not only passed along the observation, it pointed out that there was really no need to cite to Franz (or to any other source). As Franz said, "this [is] common knowledge because it's a simple (if surprising) conversion easily looked up on Google."
I do think that it is helpful for us to try to get some sense of how much a "billion" really is. The picture at the top of this blog posting came from an ABC News website that discussed "$1-billion by the numbers." ABC News provided some additional ways to gain a perspective on what a "billion" actually amounts to. A billion means, for instance, to cite ABC News, that "you would have to spend over $100,000 every day for the next 25 years in order to spend $1-billion."
Because I was struck by the observation passed along on Facebook by my Facebook Friend, I passed it along to my own Facebook Friends. Now, I am passing it along to those who might read this blog posting. Let me say, here, what I also said when I made that Facebook posting some months ago:
This mathematical truth has some political implications. Finding a way (politically) to marshall the billions of dollars possessed by more than 750 American billionaires, redirecting those dollars for the public good, could transform the nation - and the world.Worth a try, I'd say!
Thanks for the perspective. Biden just sent another $20 BILLION in arms to Israel this weekend!
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