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Blogs / James Ley / What is a trillion dollars?

What is a trillion dollars?

28 October 2010 | 10:39 AM

About three weeks ago I posted a call to action for the profesion. I suggested that, in the name of our triple bottom line sustainability rhetoric - in particular financial sustainability, it is time for ICMA and its membership to stand up and take a stand as to federal and state financial management, in particular debt.

The the US Governmetn is $13.5 Trillion in debt (really closer to $50 trillion when you consider the IOs in the Social Security trust fund and unfunded obligations) and is operating this year at an oeprating loss of close to $1.5 Trillion. What is a Trillion Dollars? It rolls of the toungue as easy as a million and a billion.

A million dollars is a stack of freshly printed one thousand dollar bills three inches high. A billion dollars is a freshly printed stack of thousand dollar bills two hundred and fifty feet high. Now get ready....... A trillion dollars is a freshly printed stack of thousand dolalr bils 47.3 miles high.

I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore............

Comments

William Lutz said

28 Oct 2010

What is more astonishing is they don't even make the $1000 bill anymore. Maybe if we are talking $100s it would be 473 miles high?

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James Ley said

28 Oct 2010

Yikes, I need a spell checker. Doing too many things at once. Space shuttle barely gets that high - 473 miles

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Kevin Carter said

2 Nov 2010

I agree. Local government can be the only one held accountable to balance a budget. I'm disappointed that sustainable budgeting (i.e. matching expenditures to revenue) isn't a priority.

@James, What would you recommend we do?

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James Ley I have had several conversations with Bob O'Neill about this issue and he seems to be concerned about getting labeled, as in "tea party" or something such. The suggestion he made was to work within the realm of the Big Seven. This idea has some merit as one approach but diminishes ICMAs voice. In addition, with the NGO and US Conference of Mayors as participants it is even more likely that 1) ICMA will be labelled as political 2) more likely to be drowned out by all of those whose politcal life depends on the continued flow of federal dollars. I have suggested to Jerry Newfarmer that the ICMA policy committee needs to take this discussion up and possibly organize a disucssion with the entire profession. Truth be told we also have our self interest tied up in being the beneficiary of unsustainable federal spending. It is very comfortable to mold sustainability discussions around the simpler dimensions of environmental practice (except when one includes land use and transportation policy as part of the mix) and quite another to step up to the plate when it comes to money. Here we have failed our practice!!!

2 Nov 2010

I have had several conversations with Bob O'Neill about this issue and he seems to be concerned about getting labeled, as in "tea party" or something such.  The suggestion he made was to work within the realm of the Big Seven.  This idea has some merit as one approach but diminishes ICMAs voice.  In addition, with the NGO and US Conference of Mayors as participants it is even more likely that  1) ICMA will be labelled as political 2) more likely to be drowned out by all of those whose politcal life depends on the continued flow of federal dollars.

I have suggested to Jerry Newfarmer that the ICMA policy committee needs to take this discussion up and possibly organize a disucssion with the entire profession.  Truth be told we also have our self interest tied up in being the beneficiary of unsustainable federal spending.

It is very comfortable to mold sustainability discussions around the simpler dimensions of environmental practice (except when one includes land use and transportation policy as part of the mix) and quite another to step up to the plate when it comes to money.  Here we have failed our practice!!!

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Robert Carty This is an interesting look at the federal budget - prepared by the same folk who did that Mint video: http://wallstats.com/deathandtaxes/

3 Nov 2010

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