One Trillion

Monday's w/ Michael

I recently read an article that said that for the first 3 quarters of 2010, the federal government has spent one trillion dollars more than it has taken in. A one trillion dollar loss in nine months. A trillion...that's a lot. That's a 1 with a dozen 0's behind it. $1,000,000,000,000

The article went on to show some of the things you could buy with a trillion dollars. Here are some of my favorites.

- 40,816,326 new cars. The 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI has a sticker price of around $24,500.

- 140 billion hours of work (at $7.25/hour). That's enough hours to employ the entire state of Kansas (man, woman & child) for the next 23 years!

- 1.33 trillion chocolate bars. At 75 cents a piece you could buy enough 1.55 oz Hershey's bars to equal the weight of 150,000 Boeing 747-400's.

- $15.5 billion in interest on a one year CD at 1.55% interest.

- Lebron James...for 50,000 years. Lebron recently signed a new contract with the Miami Heat. Assuming he makes $20,000,000 each year, a trillion dollars would cover his salary for the next 50 millennia.

You could do a lot with a trillion dollars. But there is a lot you can't do. There are over 143 million orphans in the world today. Assuming each adoption costs $20,000, a trillion dollars would only cover the adoption expenses for 50,000,000 (just over 1/3 of all the orphans). One trillion dollars would still leave 93,000,000 children without their forever families. Fifty thousand Lebron James' would still leave 93,000,000 children in orphanages, foster care or on the streets.

I know those numbers are staggering and the task ahead seems daunting. But the orphans don't need 50,000,000 Lebron James'. They aren't relying on the entire state of Kansas. They only need YOU. If you and I vow to help them, I know we can make a difference.

Make it a great week!