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Doltish Debt Depictions

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 26•11

A New Debt Depiction in $100 Bills

Ronald Reagan famously described in 1980 how the national debt, if stacked in dollar bills, would extend almost to the moon.  I remember watching him say it on television and thinking “my God.” It made quite an impression, not just on me, but on the country. People spoke about that visual for the rest of the 1980 campaign.

Bill Clinton later ripped off Reagan and offered his own depiction of the national debt — one not nearly as good.  He did it in $1,000 bills extending 267 miles into space.  I can’t even picture a $1,000 bill, much less 267 miles of space.

Now, graphic design artist Oto Godfrey is out with his own visual analysis of U.S. debt as reported in Huffington Post.  Godfrey employs $100 bills, football fields, and the Statue of Liberty.  Say what? I don’t know about you, but that leaves no impression on me at all.

Maybe we should get back to Reagan’s dollar-bill method. If his almost $1 trillion deficit reached the moon (around 250,000 miles away at its farthest orbit), our current $14 trillion-plus deficit would extend approximately 3.5 million miles, or 14 trips to the moon (Or 140 times around the globe.) 

Football fields?  The Statue of Liberty? C’mon.

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2 Comments

  1. Daniel Suib says:

    I agree Bill…that visual does nothing for me.

  2. Posey says:

    Good day, Awesome posting. There’s an problem with the web site with web browser, would analyze this? For instance ‘s still the industry innovator as well as a major section of people will omit a person’s great crafting just for this issue.

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