Billion begins with 'B', million with 'M'

I realize that American math skills are in decline but even the Daily Herald editors should know that a "billion" and a "million" are not the same.

First, the word billion starts with the letter "B" while the word million starts with the letter "M". Another difference is that it takes one thousand millions to make just one lowly billion.

Your Dec. 17th "Holiday Hoopla" article projects the U.S. population to reach 303 billion by Jan. 1, 2008. We will only reach that number if every American has 1,000 children over the next two weeks.

The article also states that there were 1.7 billion people employed in department stores in December 2006. Since there are only 300 million people living in America, it appears that 1.4 billion people left the country.

As a customer, I have had difficulty finding retail sales clerks at department stores, now I know the reason. The Daily Herald has inspired me to add to the Holiday Hoopla by rushing out to purchase a Mega billions ticket so I can win the trillion dollar jackpot.

Robert Miller

Evanston