The stimulus package Congress is debating is $6 trillion. To most of us, a trillion is an abstract figure. Here are three ways of grasping (and explaining to your family) what it really is.
#1: If you had gone into business on the day the Lord was born and your business lost a million dollars a day, 365 days a year, it would take you until October 2737 to lose $1 trillion.
#2: To pay back one million dollars, at a rate of one dollar per second, would take you 11.5 days. To pay back one billion dollars, at a rate of one dollar per second, would take you 32 years. To pay back one trillion dollars, at a rate of one dollar per second, would take you 31,688 years.
#3: Here's a visualization of a trillion dollars, with explanation. (It's worth the read!)
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According to the real time US debt clock, the US's federal debt [prior to the addition of the unprecedented amount now being considered] is the $23.6 trillion. (Other sources say it is roughly twice that.)
