Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Andrew Tisch: Let's Ban the Word 'Trillion' - WSJ.com
This headline caught my eye.
I think the premise is exactly right.
How we label things has a substantial bearing on how we think of things...
I think the premise is exactly right.
How we label things has a substantial bearing on how we think of things...
Andrew H. Tisch explains his point in the Wall Street Journal, beginning with:
"Pop quiz: What's bigger—$15.8 trillion, or $15,772,177,351,447?
Of course, rounding off, they're about the same. But don't we all think that the first number seems so much smaller and more manageable than the second?
The first number incorporates a tidy unit of measurement called a 'trillion.' We can get our heads around the word 'trillion,' and so we think we understand what we're looking at. In this case, it is the size of our national debt.
The thing is, it should be really hard to ever get our heads around a 'trillion.' Very few of us have ever seen a trillion of anything with our own eyes. Maybe a trillion grains of sand, but not a trillion trees or a trillion stars."