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Making sense of $700 billion Misc
By dkung
Posted Sat Oct 18, 2008 at 12:25:30 PM PDT
Congress recently passed a $700 Billion bailout/rescue plan to address the tightening credit markets. This number is so large, it's really hard to make sense of. We have lots of bright, mathematically-minded readers, so I want to know: How do you make sense of such a monstrous number?

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Making sense of $700 billion | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
[new] 700G$ (none / 0) (#1)
by PeteSchult on Sat Oct 18, 2008 at 10:26:15 PM PDT

I take it and divide by the US population of 305,446,177 (OK, 300M since we're only allowing 1 significant digit) to get $2,300 per person.


[new] in terms of college students... (none / 0) (#2)
by dkung on Sun Oct 19, 2008 at 11:43:20 AM PDT

It's about the cost of sending every American 18 year old to Harvard for four years.

Population distrubution (around 4 million in each one-year band of teenagers)

Harvard costs (just under $50k/yr.)

That makes about $800 billion. (I'm sure we could find the extra $100 billion under the couch cushions.)



Making sense of $700 billion | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
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