How Not To Imagine Big Piles Of Things

[tongodeon]

This website is making the rounds in a few of my circles, and it frustrates me. Numbers ending in "-illion" and require context, but visualizations comparing giant things to other giant things seem unproductive or counterproductive. Visualizing the size of a stack of $100 bills representing "US unfunded liabilities" is meaningless without a similar

Comments

[rangerfeline]

"this is a good sight less than what those people owe on their cars and houses."

Umm... what?
Speak for yourself, honky. I've never made more than $20k in a year in my entire life, and I'm doing better than most folks back home. I do not own a home; neither do my parents. My car is paid off. $47K is a staggering sum that would pay off all of my extant debt, with plenty left over.
The SF Bayarrhea is not the entire US.

[bbutrosghali]

Have not vetted, but I would expect that "unfunded liabilities" means pensions, for the most part. Municipal, county, state, federal, presumably corporate/private sector as well. Unclear whether net/gross debt outstanding is included in this bucket.

[talldean]

The debt is being used to finance non-durable goods.

I think it's safer to compare that to 47k$ in credit card debt, not 47k$ in debt on real estate that we own.

If everyone in the US had $50k of credit card debt, and was spending more debt faster than they paid the existing ones, and were trying to get their credit limit extended...

...that feels like a more accurate analogy.

[mmcirvin]

I think part of the current political problem is that the debt limit gets analogized to a credit limit, when it's really more like a limit above which the borrower refuses to pay the minimum balance.

[mmcirvin]

...uh, minimum monthly payment, I mean.

[talldean]

A credit limit is the most money a bank thinks that they can lend you and have you keep paying the minimum balance, isn't it?

[mister_borogove]

Visualizing the size of a stack of $100 bills representing "US unfunded liabilities" is meaningless

Definitely. Why $100 bills? Why not $1 bills or pennies or gold bars?