how much is 700 billion dollars?

[angrycarpenter]

I decided to look up the costs of things and then divide it into $700 billion to try to get a handle on the scale of this thing.

First I looked at college. $700 bilion would send 40.3 million people to school for four years.

Next I looked at cars. This bailout would buy 29 million new hybrids.

It would pay the electric bills for every household in the country for over two years.

It would pay for 16 million heart bypass surgeries.

It would buy 2.3 million houses.

It would buy 700 Gw of wind generated energy.

It would buy 3000 sq. miles of solar cells.

I am sure my figures are not that accurate but it puts this into a more real world light. This money could buy a better future for us all but it seems that it is only for rich people to feel better.

How much is $700,000,000,000? It will cost exactly one future for every man, woman and child in this country.

[itsrobert]

1. I think the Daily Show covered this

It would be 1.4 Trillion McDonalds Apple Pies. Or something close to that.

[asdjrocky]

8. As sad as it may be-

That was CNN, and Jon was just making fun of them.

[itsrobert]

2. Also on your technology items, it would be a lot more

as prices come down when you manufacture more of it. Just like a VCR was over a thousand dollars when they first started selling. Now I can get a vcr for less than $20.

So do that to solar and you will probably cover 10,000 sq miles.

[Vanje]

3. Think how it would look...

if a helicopter flew over your neighborhood, and shoveled out the door, 11,000 dollars in paper money over EACH and every house.

It would be snowing currency.
Now imagine helicopters would be making the same drop over every house in the country.

[FarCenter]

4. The bailout converts mortgage debt to treasury debt

The actual money has already been spent on houses. Mostly in California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada.

It is not really a Wall Street bailout. It's more of a Sunbelt Bailout.

[L. Coyote]

6. It is a Bush tax cuts bailout. The idiots lost all their Bush tax cut money

on real estate speculations, 7% real estate fees, 2% mortgage fees, .......

So, now, we have to give them their money again, in one lump sum, before they lose power??

[L. Coyote]

5. Up to $7,000 per taxpayer, plus interest for a few decades,all paid to the super-rich.

who caused the problem.

[Betsy Ross]

7. If you counted out $1 per second

60 seconds x 60 minutes x 24 hours x 365 days = 31,536,000

$700,000,000,000 / 31,536,000 seconds per year = 22,196 years

Check my arithmatic. That is a long time.

[Incitatus]

9. 4.2 trillion packs of ramen noodles?