As a child, I remember being in awe of the really rich, you know the ones with yachts, and mansions and summerhomes. ...the daddy warbucks of the world, the people who were millionaires.
A million dollars---more money that everyone but God.
Wow, have things changed.
I was just reading one of the numerous articles on Madoff and his ponzi scheme which may have resulted in $50 billion in losses and one of the paragraphs was about how certain companies, individuals and foundations were really hurting (potentially going to fail) because of their losses and my first thought was, "well how much could they actually lose if there was a total of $50 billion in losses." Somehow my junky brain has been so stretched from financial articles that for a split second the $50 billion was as if someone was saying $20.
With the exception of deficits, it seems like everytime we talk money, we talk in the currency of billions. I guess billions have become the new millions?
And really, when someone says "trillion dollar deficit" (actually it seems lately like everyone is saying " (add number)______ trillion dollar deficit" it no longer seems like a StarTrek number, but something I actually understand and something that even seems tangible.
Are we still on earth? Are we in the United States? Are we still talking dollar?
I am afraid that in two weeks or so, I am going to wake up and hear a reporter talk about gazillions (is that even the number after trillion)? By then, a whole lifetime (snark) gazillions will be the new trillions.
Are we ok? Are we going to make it financially? Will we ever slow down?