couscous
11-29-2012, 09:06
* U.S. Debt in hiking terms. Start at Springer Mountain with $10,000 "bricks" of one hundred $100 bills. Face north and lay the "bricks" ten wide and ten long. You would now have a hiking path 26.1" wide and 61.4" long containing $1 million. Continue paving north and just before you arrive at Big Stamp Gap / USFS 42, you would reach $1 billion. Continue paving north through Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and most of Virginia. You would reach the $1 trillion mark just before you arrived at the Jim & Molly Denton Shelter. To represent the current $16.31 trillion dollars of U.S. Total Public Debt Outstanding (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np) - you could finish paving all 2,181 miles of the Appalachian Trail, 3,100 miles of the Continental Divide Trail, 2,654 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, 1,444 miles of the Buckeye Trail in Ohio, 1,400 miles of the Florida Trail, 1,000 miles of the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin, 790 miles of the Arizona Trail, 562 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail in western New York, 500 miles of the Colorado Trail, 330 miles of the Allegheny Trail in West Virginia, 300 miles of the Benton MacKaye Trail, 295 miles of the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama, 282 miles of the Sheltowee Trace Trail in Kentucky, 270 miles of the Long Trail in Vermont, 211 miles of the John Muir Trail in California, 205 miles of the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota, 92 miles of the Midstate Trail in Massachusetts, 85 miles of the Susquehannock Trail in Pennsylvania, 70 miles of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail in Pennsylvania and 33 miles of the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska .. and have over $9 billion left.
The current estimated unfunded liabilities from Social Security, Prescription Drugs, Medicare Liabilities and other government obligations could be represented by paving the same type of path along all 47,182 miles of the Interstate Highway System .. in both directions .. and half of all the miles a third time.
The current estimated unfunded liabilities from Social Security, Prescription Drugs, Medicare Liabilities and other government obligations could be represented by paving the same type of path along all 47,182 miles of the Interstate Highway System .. in both directions .. and half of all the miles a third time.