12 billion dollars

Opinion.

 

Recently, our Prime Minister announced a 12 billion dollar shortfall in the government budget and it got me thinking. Just how much is 12 billion dollars exactly?

 

$12,000,000,000.00

 

"It's here somewhere..."

 

It is such a large number, one finds it difficult to wrap one's brain around.

 

Depending on the industry, some people earn less then or close to $20.00 an hour. At 12 billion dollars, such a person could have a job for 480,000 years. That's almost seven thousand lifetimes.

 

Even at $100,000.00 a year, considered to be a good income that most of the population only dream of, one could earn such income for 120,000 years.

 

or

 

a hundred and twenty thousand jobs for a year. Gone !

 

It seems incredible to me that such numbers can be announced by our government so casually, as if everything is just fine. Oh, we made a mistake in our calculations a half a year ago. Oh, it's not really our fault, the dollar is too high. But we want your vote in September. Trust us, we know what we are doing.

Osca.