I saw this post about trying to visualize 1 trillion dollars…
In this illustration there’s a little guy standing off to the left for scale and next to him are double stacked pallets of 100 dollar bills. While this is remarkable to aid one in visualizing 1 trillion dollars, I was given the opportunity to help people visualize 100 trillion dollars in the following photo:
A friend gave me this last night over sushi and assured me that it is an authentic Zimbabwean 100 trillion dollar bill. He said that it wouldn’t buy a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe. At that point all I had was questions. I think it’s hilarious to imagine a scene in a Zimbabwean store of some sort where the person pays with a 100 trillion dollar bill and when they get their change they say… “Hey, wait a minute, I gave you a hundred trillion for a stick of gum and all you gave me back in change was two 50 billions, two 20 trillions, a hundred billion and etc. etc. They are gonna raise a generation of mathematical genii… well at least as far as adding and subtracting. Well, something to think about I guess… here’s a new photo of a new bowl and it’s on sale for… hmm, how about 100 gazillion dollars Zimbabwean?
Sofia's Dad's Pots 
April 7, 2009 at 11:06 am |
my mom had a good friend when i was little who lived in China when it’s government was falling apart, communism was moving in, japan was occupying northern regions …… she told my mother that going out to eat one night required her to take two pocketbooks full of money to pay for her meal. I don’t know how much money the food cost her. I just remember the image of scurrying down a foreign street, old clasp -style pocketbooks with money sticking haphazardly out…
the image has stuck with me.
xxx
rdm
April 7, 2009 at 12:01 pm |
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE your glazes. DANG!
April 7, 2009 at 3:34 pm |
I heard recently on a program about gold where the gold seller said that gold never changes value. He claims that the paper stuff changes value, not the value of gold. Gold is a constant in the minds of those who covet it. Hence “gold standard” ?
April 8, 2009 at 8:06 am |
Wow – that photo for scale sure puts things in perspective!
For some reason, that Austin Powers movie quote are running through my brain right now after reading, “100 trillion dollars” – lol
April 8, 2009 at 8:08 am |
Love the glazes!!! The money thing makes my head hurt…
April 9, 2009 at 6:36 am |
The futility of even trying to print currency to keep up with prices in Zimbabwe is staggering. Last fall, I saw a picture of a man in Harare with teh car of his trunk full of trillion-dollar bills. I seem to recal the entire load being worth something like a $1,000 US.