Let's think about numbers -- big numbers.

Most of us think of a million as a million dollars -- a lot of money. Even before the TV show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" there was an earlier version called, I think, "The Millionaire", which wasn't a game show but was an actual series in which random people suddenly were given a million dollars. I can't recall the details, but the idea was that the words "million dollars" meant a lifetime of ease from debt and also the purchase of lots of luxuries.

Of course a million dollars today isn't what it was then, when most of us have to shell out a quarter to a half of that just to buy a good-sized house in a nice neighborhood. We probably all know any number of people who are worth, on paper, a million dollars and who still complain about the cost of life and who don't live lives of luxury. A million bucks these days isn't what it used to be.

But these days the President and the Congress are throwing around numbers in not just the millions but the billions and even the trillions (to bail out banks, etc.). Whoa! Time to back up.

What, exactly, is a million? Not the dollars, but the number. (All you math majors can check out now, as you have a very clear idea of what it means; this entry is intended for those of us who are math-challenged. Go have a cup of over-priced coffee and check back later, okay?)

A million of anything is a thousand thousand. Let's suppose you have a thousand dollars in your checking or savings account. You know that it's a single dollar times a thousand. Or a hundred dollars times ten. If you have ten hundred dollar bills, you have a thousand dollars.

Let's imagine you spend that thousand dollars on a big-screen TV, assuming you can find one for that price. Now let's imagine you own a store that sells them, and you need to have at least a hundred in-stock to sell to others. That would be a hundred times a thousand, which would be a hundred thousand dollars you've spent for those TVs. (Of course you plan to sell them for a few hundred more each: your profit.) But you would have to sell all those and re-order again and again and again -- ten times -- before you would have bought, wholesale, a million dollars worth of TVs. A million is a thousand thousand, right? You would have to have a thousand of those TVs in your store to have a million dollars' worth. Can you imagine a store with a thousand TVs?

Now let's jump it up a notch -- a very big notch. Forget your store; let's talk the United States government. Not just TVs but tanks and planes and missiles and the upkeep on troops in foreign countries, not to mention Social Security payments to retirees and Medicaire payments and grants to states to keep up the highway system, etc. Now we're talking not millions but billions.

So how much is a billion? It's a thousand million. Not ten million (10, 000, 000) or a hundred million (100, 000, 000) but a thousand million (1, 000, 000, 000). Take a moment to think about that. One billion is a one plus nine zeros.

The U.S. government deals in billions, not millions, and a thousand here or there is pocket change.

But let's go back to a thousand. You have a thousand dollars. Assume you have them in ones. Spread those out on a table. Dollar by dollar, you would fill up a good-sized table and be spilling onto the floor. Laid end to end, those thousand dollars would stretch the length of a football field and then some. (They're each a little less than six inches times a hundred yards: you can do the math, right?)

Now mulitply that a thousand times -- a thousand football fields of one dollar bills -- and you have a million. A million yards, a million dollars, a million whatever. We're talking big numbers, no?

So what's a billion? Now we're talking about how far stars are away from us. A thousand million miles. What about dollars our government is spending? They're talking a thousand million dollars to help banks or failing car companies or to prop up this program or that one. But a thousand million, right? Spread those dollar bills out, end to end, and you're to the moon and back more than once! Whoa!

Okay, not to condescend, but to review:

Here's what a thousand looks like: 1, 000.

Here's what a million looks like: 1,000, 000.

Here's what a billion looks like: 1, 000, 000, 000.

Have you ever seen such a number?

But it doesn't stop there. We're now talking about hundreds of billions to bail out big banks and maybe the automotive industry and possibly other big businesses.


Here's what a hundred billion looks like, in dollar figures:

$100, 000,000, 000.

But that's not the end of it. Our government is committed to more than that in the future to try to clear our debts and get us back on the track to prosperity. And, again, I'm not leaning left or right -- Democratic or Republican -- on this, just reporting what I've heard. All I'm trying to do is keep us all aware of the numbers.

Are you ready for this? We've talked thousands and millions and even billions. Are your ready for trillions?

A trillion is a thousand billions.

Take that in before you look at the next figure.

Ready?

Here's what one trillion dollars looks like: $1,000,000,000,000.

That means a thousand thousand thousand thousand dollars.

What does your bank account look like?

I am not advocating spending or not spending, regardless of the amount. I just think it's important for us all to try to imagine the amounts of money being spent -- and to be sure it's spent in ways that benefit us all.

On the other hand, aren't the numbers themselves kind of dazzling?

By the way, do you know what comes after a trillion? It's a quadrillion, which would be a thousand trillion. If you can imagine that, my hat's off to you.

Hoping it never comes to this, here is what it would look like, in dollars:

$1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.

Let's hope we never see that figure except in our worst dreams!

In the meantime, I'm still hoping to become a millionaire.