Doing the math on a trillion dollars

That's one TRILLION. The number is so large, it's difficult to comprehend. Yet once SpaceX issues its IPO, Elon Musk will probably become the world's first TRILLIONAIRE. Here are a few other representations of a TRILLION.

1) If you began counting in one second intervals, it would take you 31,709+ years to get to a TRILLION.

2) The current Illinois operating budget for Fiscal Year 2026-2027 is $55.9 billion. A TRILLION dollars would pay all of our state's expenditures for 17.89 years.

3) And finally, if you had a TRILLION dollars in a non-interest-bearing account, and began spending $1,000,000 daily, from the moment Jesus was crucified, as of today, you'd still have enough left to keep spending $1,000,000 everyday for another 744+ years.

Now I don't begrudge anyone the right to legally accumulate an unfathomable amount of money, so long as those individuals are donating gargantuan sums to non-political and non-religious organizations, where 90+% of the cash goes directly to the most needy. Sadly, we all know most of them don't.

Wes Dickson

Orland Park