Perspective on US debt (2011)

Putting US debt into perspective...

I don't know where the original English version came from (thanks Ray!), but it confirms that a picture is worth 1,000 words.

A particularly explicit demonstration...: people prone to vertigo, please refrain.

One Hundred Dollars

$100 - The most counterfeited banknote in the world. Makes the world go round.

Ten thousand Dollars

$10,000 - Enough for a nice holiday or a second-hand car. About a year's work for the average person on Earth.

One Million Dollars

$1,000,000 - The pile is smaller than you imagined, isn't it? Still, it's equivalent to 92 years of work for the average human being on Earth.

Hundred Million Dollars

$100,000,000 - Enough to live the good life. Fits nicely on an ISO or military standard pallet.

One Billion Dollars

$1,000,000,000 - You'll need help to rob the bank. This is where it gets serious!

One Trillion Dollars

$1,000,000,000,000

When the US government talks about a 1.7 trillion deficit, that's the amount of cash the US government borrowed in 2010 to keep itself going.
Bear in mind that these are double pallets of $100 million each, full of $100 notes. You're going to need a lot of trucks to move those volumes.

If you had spent $1 million a day since the day Jesus was born, you wouldn't have spent $1 trillion today...but about $700 million - the amount the banks received during the bailout.

Compare $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars) with an American football stadium and a European football stadium. 
Look at the Boeing 747-400 transcontinental lurking on the right. Until recently, it was the world's largest passenger aircraft.

15 Trillion Dollars

$15,000,000,000,000 - Unless the US government agrees to the budget, the US national debt (credit) will reach 15 trillion by Christmas 2011.

The Statue of Liberty looks pretty worried, as the US national debt exceeds the combined GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the entire world by 20%. In 2011, the US National Debt will exceed 100% of GDP, and join the club of nations with a debt/GDP ratio of over 100%+ that includes some European nations (bankrupt nations).

114.5 Trillion Dollars

$114,500,000,000,000. - Unhedged US debt.

On the right you can see a pillar of $100 notes that dwarfs the height of the WTC and the Empire State Building - two of the tallest buildings in the world until a few years ago. If you look closely, you can see the Statue of Liberty.

The 114.5 trillion dollar skyscraper is the amount of money the US government knows it needs to fund Medicare, the Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Social Security, military and civil service pensions. It's the money the US government is short of to pay all its bills. 
If you live in the United States, it's also your personal credit bill; you, like everyone else, are responsible for paying off that debt. The citizens of the United States created the government to serve them, and that's what the government has done by serving the people.

The uncovered debt is calculated on the basis of tax and financial inflows, as well as future demographic changes in the US population.

Note: In the 114.5T image above, the image the size of the base of the pile of money is half a Trillion, not 1 Trillion as in the 15 Trillion image. The height is double. This was done to better match the base of the Empire State and the WTC.

Source: Federal Reserve & www.USdebtclock.org Visit this site to see the debt in real time and get a better idea of these astronomical figures.