Perspective

The next time you hear a politician use the words "billion" casually, think about whether you want that politician spending your tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into perspective in one of its releases:

* A billion seconds ago, it was 1959. * A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive. * A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. * A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.

* It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.

* It took less time to find Saddam's sons in Iraq than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.

* It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Teddy Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sunk at Chappaquiddick.

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* A billion seconds ago, it was 1959.

* A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive.

* A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

* A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.

From Snopes.com (where I got the one I posted):

A billion seconds: One billion seconds is about 31.7 years, so going back in time a billion seconds would put us in 1972. (The discrepancy in the version cited above, which puts the year at 1959, might have come about because this piece was written or last updated in 1990.)

A billion minutes: One billion minutes is approximately 1901 years, so travelling back to a time a billion minutes ago would land us in the year A.D. 102. This date is about seventy years too late to encompass the life of Jesus, according to traditional accounts. (Perhaps the discrepancy of several decades is an indication that this piece originated back in the 1930s.)

A billion hours: One billion hours ago represents a time a bit over 114,000 years in the past, an era generally classified as the Palaeolithic or "Old Stone Age."

A billion dollars ago: If the U.S. federal government were spending a billion dollars every 8 hours and 20 minutes, its total yearly expenditure would be a little more than $1 trillion. The last few years, the budgets approved by Congress have been about double that amount, or $2 trillion per year.

That's where I get my number from.

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