Visualizing The US Debt Ceiling (In $100 Bills)

The United States owes a lot of money. For now, there is no debt ceiling – it has been suspended – but in 10 days that changes, and who knows what happens then.

For some context as to just how much money the US owes – and what the debt ceiling looks like – Demonocracy is back…

One Hundred Dollars

$100 – Most counterfeited money denomination in the world.
Keeps the world moving.

Ten Thousand Dollars

$10,000 – Enough for a great vacation or to buy a used car.

Approximately one year of work for the average human on earth.

One Million Dollars

$1,000,000 – Not as big of a pile as you thought, huh?
Still, this is 92 years of work for the average human on earth.

One Hundred Million Dollars

$100,000,000 – Plenty to go around for everyone.
Fits nicely on an ISO / Military standard sized pallet.

The couch is made from $46.7 million of crispy $100 bills.

$100 Million Dollars = 1 year of work for 3500 average Americans

Here are 2000 people standing shoulder to shoulder, looking for a job.
The Federal Reserve’s mandate is to maintain price stability and low unemployment.
The Federal Reserve prints money based on the assumption that increasing money supply will boost jobs.

One Billion Dollars

$1,000,000,000 – You will need some help when robbing the bank.
Interesting fact: $1 million dollars weighs 10kg exactly.
You are looking at 10 tons of money on those pallets.

One Trillion Dollars

$1,000,000,000,000
The 2011 US federal deficit was $1.412 Trillion – 41% more than you see here.

If you spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, you would have not spent $1 trillion by now…
but ~$700 billion- same amount the banks got during bailout.

One Trillion Dollars

Comparison of $1,000,000,000,000 dollars to a standard sized American Football field.

Say hello to the Boeing 747-400 transcontinental airliner that’s hiding in the back. This was until recently the biggest passenger plane in the world.