Now picture two apples. Can you picture three? Four? Four apples, almost instantly, are appearing in your head? Not two apples and then two apples. That's cheating. Five apples? Six? Seven? Sorry, but you didn't picture seven apples in your head. It's only possible if you're a genius. If you think that you're one of those geniuses, try again. Did you really picture seven apples in your head instantly and all at once?

Most people would say no. Why? Because the human brain cannot truly understand big numbers. It's true. It's been proven by psychologists that our brains simply aren't made to handle tons of information at once. Ever heard the saying, "My brain is spinning from all the information I just got. It's too much to take in at once!"?

"He had long ago concluded that he possessed only one small and finite brain, and he had fixed a habit of determining most carefully with what he would fill it."
--Annie Dillard, "The Living".

Since we can't even truly understand numbers like seven, ten, and fifteen, how in the world are we supposed to understand numbers like one million, two billion and google (a million million)? This is why the U.S. government keeps spending millions of dollars. They don't totally realize how much they're spending. In October, the U.S. Congress approved a bill to spend over $57 million developing a laser cannon that can shoot down short-range missiles.

"So?" you say? Do you really think that this laser cannon is important enough to spend all this money on?

"It's not that much," you say. Think again. How much allowance do you get each week? Maybe $5, $10, or maybe your parents give you a little allowance: $.50 or a dollar.

At a ten dollars a week, it would take you a hundred thousand weeks to get a million. That's about one thousand, nine hundred and twenty-three years. Five dollars: two hundred thousand weeks or three thousand, eight hundred and forty-six years. And so on.

A million is a lot.

Still not upset about Congress spending $57 million on a laser cannon? Think about this: A million minutes is 16,666.6 hours. 694.4 days. 99.2 weeks. 22.8 months. Or 1.9 years.

Still not impressed? Okay, imagine that you actually have a million minutes of free time. You could:

* Have 33,333 pizzas delivered one right after the other
* Walk about 66,666 miles
* Blink over 20 million times
* Have over 5,840 dreams
* Make over 2,280 phone calls (Wow, big phone bill!)
* Or, for all the Lord of the Ring lovers, you could watch the movie The Two Towers 5,586 times!

Now that you understand how much a million is, get this: From first grade until early in 10th grade, you spend about 1 million minutes in school. Wow. No wonder it seems like school goes on for ever!

I've just been talked about one million. Congress is spending $57 million. Instead of watching The Two Towers 5,586 times, you could watch it 318,402 times!

Besides the point that $57 million is a lot, have you ever thought about where all this money is coming from? It's going to come from YOU. Yep, that's right, you're going to be paying taxes to pay for a laser cannon. On Jan. 12, the U.S. national debt had reached $7,004,887,296,859.25. The estimated population of the U.S. is 293,016, 998 people, so each person's portion of this debt is $23,906.08.

There's debt in Canada too, but not as bad as in the United States. Canada's debt is at about $536,489,000,000. Since Canada's population is about 31,413,990, that equals $17,078.03 per person.

But I'm just a kid! you cry. Well, you have an equal share in this debt. In a sense, you were in debt before you turned 18. You were in debt the day you were born. Oh, and since you're not paying on it, there's interest accruing....

Let's all celebrate and shout hurrah! We're all going to have to pay taxes someday! Okay, bad rhyme. But it is true. That's how this huge debt will be paid off.

Personally, I think that they should just get rid of money. However, I seriously doubt that that will happen anytime soon.

Do you want to have to pay huge tax bills for the rest of your life? No. Maybe we can change this in the future and get rid of the debt. What can you do? Learn the value of a dollar -- and the value of a million, so you too won't end up spending way more than you should.

Signing off to enjoy my million hours of free time (just joking!!), this is Aruby. Goodnight!

Sources:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
www.msnmember.com
http://www.siam.org/siamnews/04-99/massive.htm
My science teacher!
http://www.learning-network.org/global/issues/d/debt/