How much is $1 trillion? A trillion dollars is very hard for me to wrap my head around, so I started thinking of it in this way. In 1 A.D. a man named Hank was left one trillion dollars by a relative, and decided to open a business. The nature of the business is not important, what is important is that Hank was a very poor businessman and preceded to lose one million dollars each day in his business. Descendants came and descendants went, sadly none were any better at business than Hank and they also continued to lose one million dollars each day. It is now 2012 and Hank’s current descendant is equally as bad at business as was Hank and follows along with the family tradition of losing one million dollars a day. Out of curiosity he asks his accountant to go over the numbers, telling him how much of Hank’s fortune had been lost and, if fortunes did not change, how much longer it would last. The accountant came back telling this man that of the original one trillion dollars nearly $735,000,000,000 (that is billion with a B) had been lost, and if situations did not change the money would run out in a little over 725 years, or about 2737 A.D. Hank’s current descendant breathed a sigh of relief; at least he would be alright. We currently have a national debt of over $16 trillion with the very real possibility of that doubling within the next ten to twelve years. The only hope we have is for someone in Washington to grow a brain and a backbone and start doing something about it. So far all we have had are a bunch of Hanks.