Holy Money
I'm listening to a NPR Science Friday bit about wrapping your head around the concept of a trillion. How much is it, really?
Well, according to the dude who wrote the "How Much is a Million?" children's books:
1 million dollars as a stack of $100 bills would be 4 feet tall.
1 billion dollars in $100 bills would be a stack 4,000 ft tall, or approx. 3 Sears towers on top of each other.
1 trillion dollars in $100 bills would form a stack 789 miles tall, equivalent to 144 Mount Everests placed on top of each other.
Our president is planning to spend $3.1 trillion dollars, or 446 Mt. Everests stacked one atop another. He's not spending just mountains of money, but HUNDREDS OF MOUNTAINS of money, figuratively speaking. Sheesh. That's kind of nuts.
It also makes my student loan and credit card debt seem more like a molehill, which is most welcome since I've been freaking out a bit about how I'm going to survive life in grad school, fiscally speaking. I'm pretty much just getting by now and I'm making a semi-reasonable salary for someone fresh out of school in the sciences. During grad school I will be making significantly less, plus when I get out it seems I will be making only slightly more than what I make now. That is not good, not good at all, after 6 years of grueling work for my PhD. Cue freak-out! I may be freaking prematurely since I need to do a bit more research on salary rates and such, but still, the prospects are not encouraging.
But when I try to think about the alternatives, I can't because I don't know what they would be. I like learning things. I like nature. I like school. I like learning things about nature in school. Maybe I should learn things about nature in school for a few years until I'm qualified to discover things about nature to teach to other people who like to learn things about nature in school? It doesn't get much clearer than that. (Admittedly it does, but you get what I'm saying.)
I just wish that I could do that and make a nice chunk of money at the same time. I'm not even talking big money, just $40 or $50,000 a year, just to make sure I can live comfortably, pay my bills, and save up for my future. Or, better yet, go into school already having some savings put away as a safety net. Or, at least know people with savings put away that they'd be willing to spend on me if I needed a safety net. None of these are true. Thus, I worry.
Well, according to the dude who wrote the "How Much is a Million?" children's books:
1 million dollars as a stack of $100 bills would be 4 feet tall.
1 billion dollars in $100 bills would be a stack 4,000 ft tall, or approx. 3 Sears towers on top of each other.
1 trillion dollars in $100 bills would form a stack 789 miles tall, equivalent to 144 Mount Everests placed on top of each other.
Our president is planning to spend $3.1 trillion dollars, or 446 Mt. Everests stacked one atop another. He's not spending just mountains of money, but HUNDREDS OF MOUNTAINS of money, figuratively speaking. Sheesh. That's kind of nuts.
It also makes my student loan and credit card debt seem more like a molehill, which is most welcome since I've been freaking out a bit about how I'm going to survive life in grad school, fiscally speaking. I'm pretty much just getting by now and I'm making a semi-reasonable salary for someone fresh out of school in the sciences. During grad school I will be making significantly less, plus when I get out it seems I will be making only slightly more than what I make now. That is not good, not good at all, after 6 years of grueling work for my PhD. Cue freak-out! I may be freaking prematurely since I need to do a bit more research on salary rates and such, but still, the prospects are not encouraging.
But when I try to think about the alternatives, I can't because I don't know what they would be. I like learning things. I like nature. I like school. I like learning things about nature in school. Maybe I should learn things about nature in school for a few years until I'm qualified to discover things about nature to teach to other people who like to learn things about nature in school? It doesn't get much clearer than that. (Admittedly it does, but you get what I'm saying.)
I just wish that I could do that and make a nice chunk of money at the same time. I'm not even talking big money, just $40 or $50,000 a year, just to make sure I can live comfortably, pay my bills, and save up for my future. Or, better yet, go into school already having some savings put away as a safety net. Or, at least know people with savings put away that they'd be willing to spend on me if I needed a safety net. None of these are true. Thus, I worry.