16 TRILLION

It is a fact that the average human being has great difficulty in getting his brain around large numbers, and the one above is LARGE.

It is also an interesting figure for three, very different, reasons:

1. Take the base number – 16. This was my age when I realised that people (and what makes them tick) was far more important to me than things – “possessions”; that has been my guidance now for more than 50 years.

2. 16 trillion happens to be the total debt of the United States as I write this. Assuming a population of 250 million “souls”, this means that every single man, woman and child owes $640,000 (if my maths is correct – and if it isn’t, I’m numerically blind!)

And to put all this into perspective, consider:

3. 16 trillion – homo sapiens HAS NOT BEEN ON THIS PLANET for that number of seconds! (And look what he has achieved, or not).

I wonder whether we will be here when that magic number is reached, and also whether we will exist for another 16 trillion…. I’ll come back and tell you.

Until next time (and counting),

Peripatetic Scribe