$700 billion

mark morford inspired me to think—ok, to think more—about what that amount of money means.

written out, $700 billion is $700,000,000,000. that’s a lot. it’s way beyond what I can quite comprehend. so here’s a breakdown.

$700 billion is more than 21.5 million times my annual salary.

it’s more than 9.6 million times the cost of my house.

it’s 30 million times what I owe in student loans.

it’s 291 million times the cost of private healthcare for the average adult for a year—without employer contributions.

it’s 14 million times the cost of a four-year education at a “moderately” priced state university, moderately being $10,000-$15,000/year.

how many people are in the states?

oh, look: the population of the united states is 301,139,947.

$700 billion is a lot of money. it could pay for health insurance for everyone in this nation—especially if you eliminated all the insurance companies and bureaucracy and speculators that drive up the cost of healthcare.

$700 billion could pay off everyone’s student loans. and heh, that would drive down the cost of healthcare, too, since half the reason docs needs to make hundreds of thousands of dollars is to pay off the cost of their education.

$700 billion could wipe out the debt of every man, woman, and family who can’t pay off their medical expenses right now, who can’t shell out the hundreds and thousands of dollars from their meager incomes to pay emergency room bills, prescription costs, and various procedures and medical visits that aren’t covered under the health insurance that they already pay $60-$200/month for.

$700 billion could save every house in foreclosure or near foreclosure. it could keep people in their homes. it could keep homes off the already glutted market. it could even give those pesky lenders their damn money.

$700 billion could send a lot of people to a public university for four years. free.

it could pay for public transportation and new energy initiatives and the reorganization of cities and the start of more small businesses.

$700 billion could do a lot.

and frankly, any one of those things is better for the American people—and that damnable nefarious intangible entity we call the economy—than handing $700 billion over to the same greedy folks who get rich by screwing everyone else over to begin with.