Seeing your value in barrels of oil

According to economist Scott Burns in a Tuesday Daily Herald column, America's net worth is $57.7 trillion or 498 billion barrels of crude oil.

Not long ago, I enlightened readers about how to handle such huge numbers.

Here's a quick review: A trillion has 12 zeros, and a million has only six. So if we subtract the six zero difference and divide by 300 we discover that each of the 300 million Americans are theoretically worth about $190 thousand each.

Now if oil sells at $100 a barrel, it takes 10 barrels to equal $1,000 dollars.

And that makes you only worth 1,900 barrels of crude.

See how simple math is? What really gives me a headache though is figuring out how seniors will spend that $300 rebate. My wife insists it belongs to her. Now that's a number she can handle.

Joseph Russell Vannier

Hoffman Estates