Like many who work in health care (and some who don't), I am watching the discussions/debates/proposals/revised proposals on health care reform with much interest. One of the things that has intrigued me is the ease with which incredibly large dollar amounts are communicated. I mean when did "trillion dollars" sneak so comfortably into our vocabulary? I remember when I was a little girl (which I admit was a really long time ago), "million" was more a concept than an amount as it seemed so far out of any normal person's grasp. I remember vividly that if someone had a million dollars, they would never have to work again. Winning a million dollars would have set you on that street called Easy. I know lots of people who don't bother to play the lottery if the pot is not lots and lots of millions -- not that I am encouraging people to gamble, it is just something that I have observed. I have asked my family and friends who only buy tickets when the lottery pot gets to that over $100 million mark, "Why don't you play when you could win $2 million?" The general answer is "It's just not as much fun to dream about what I could do with $2 million. Now, $200 million, I'm on Easy Street."
I understand inflation and that a dollar is not what it used to be. Is that why we have moved so comfortably from talking about millions to billions to trillions? Is it because the television news anchors say it with such ease? Even though I am pretty horrible at math, I am fascinated by numbers. (As an aside, I thought July 8 was very cool because the date was 7-8-9. And yesterday (July 16), if you added the month and the year, the sum was the day). So, for the first time ever, I numerically wrote 1 trillion. It doesn't just easily roll off the pen and required me to go back and count more than once to make sure I had included the right number of zeroes. I think if we took the time to write numbers out (sorry AP Style Guide) or to imagine what a trillion of anything would look like (would a trillion baseballs fill a stadium?), we might have a deeper appreciation for what these numbers mean. This is not a political statement, just one woman's observation.
5 comments:
I'm afraid the media has already moved on. Here's a story from last week about a computer glitch that caused Visa customers to get 24 quadrillion dollar bills!
http://tinyurl.com/nt4du6
June, I’ve been meaning to ask -- what’s the background of the “BJC Better Health” signage at Busch? I haven’t seen it used anyplace else.
Hi Brigid,
Sorry for delayed response. Have met myself coming and going this past week. Like the Nike Swoosh, we are trying to drive value-added meaning into the BJC blue leaf. You have hopefully read our position statement -- Where Learning & Innovation come together for Better Health & Better Healthcare. We had an opportunity for a new, more visible location for our sign at the ballpark. With the goal of driving meaning into the blue leaf and against the backdrop of our position statement, decided to couple the leaf with one of the messages that we thought would be most indicative of what we are trying to accomplish -- which is better health for our communities.
The sign was very visible during the All Star game (which was pretty cool).
J
How many more trillions will be needed for health care reform? I heard yesterday on the radio that some are talking about another sin tax -- 10 cents/can on soda and other sugared drinks to pay for health care reform. NOT diet soda. How many 10 centses go into a few trillion? What's next? A fat surcharge at Burger King?
Patt, you accidentally struck a nerve with your post. Slippery slope arguments (statements that claim a first step inevitably leads to a guaranteed outcome) not only are personal pet peeves, but they’re also invalid. Reporters love slippery slope statements (they make great soundbites), but if you ever hear anyone begin their argument with, “The next thing ya know…,” the second half of that sentence is seldom a foregone conclusion.
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