The National Debt Clock overflowed and the electronic dollar sign is now being used for the extra digit, with an improvised currency-indicative device, until such time as the clock can be replaced.
I heard about this the other night, and while my second thought was about how sad and funny it is at the same time, my first was “We have an electronic clock for keeping track of this? Why?”
Because NYC has everything. How you doin.
No disrespeck.
I think it’s hillarious that even the people who were so negative about the government that they paid for and installed a debt clock to shame it were wrong about how big that debt would actually get.
Yeah, that’s what makes it interesting.
It’s a Moneyokalpyse.
It’s like Y2k but, uh, for D10T.
Because the number 1 trillion is simply too large for most people to even begin to grasp. Having a clock that visually counts these numbers helps people wrap their heads around the notion of just how large the debt is. Analogies like how many stacks of $1 bills would reach the moon and back just don’t cut it.
I would display it in dollars per person - right now we’re around $30400 per person in debt. That’s a lot scarier because it’s easier to think about.
Well, but that doesn’t make aaaany sense. “Here is this huge, incomprehensible number! By putting it up on a billboard, people will see the numerals and grasp its enormity!”
I would display it in dollars per person - right now we’re at around $30400 per person. That’s a lot scarier because it’s easier to think about.
Yeah, actually, that’s what the clock does. It says “Your share:”
RIP Debtklok…
I was once in a cab stuck in traffic around union square and I found myself hypnotized by those numbers. Then I remembered what it meant and got back to feeling sick to my stomach.
Oh! Well, good job, Debtclock!
Wait, what? If I tell you a huge number out loud it won’t mean much of anything to you, but if I write it down it will? That thing could be counting Bill Gates’ net worth or flies that have landed on it or pizzas sold statewide year-to-date; it could be ten trillion or a hundred trillion or a hundred million and it would still be more money than most people could fathom.
Agreed, debt-per-capita is extremely useful in helping people grasp the amount of debt we are currently on-the-hook for.
Well if you (plural) take what I said and then add lolling hyperbole, of course it doesn’t make sense. But yes, visualizing a number helps a person grasp it’s enormity. For instance, if you try and imagine a smaller number, like say $1 billion, you end up thinking in terms of what you could buy with it, because the number itself is just out of our mind’s range.
However, if I were to say that this is $1 million dollars, and $1 billion equals 1000 of these cubes, and that the USA spends 1000 of these cubes every 20 minutes (or whatever) this perspective might help someone grok it.
Or to put your lol-example in perspective, writing the words “1000 pizzas” doesn’t really have the same visual communicative impact that showing someone a stack of 1000 pizza boxes would.
I wonder how they consider how many significant digits to add to the debt clock… “This is how bad we think it will get”.
I… don’t really see how. Seems like you’re asking people to do a lot of math there.
Or to put your lol-example in perspective, writing the words “1000 pizzas” doesn’t really have the same visual communicative impact that showing someone a stack of 1000 pizza boxes would.
Except that writing a number down isn’t that kind of visual at all, and you said in the post we were responding to that visual analogies “don’t cut it.”
I’m not asking them to do math, I’m asking them to visualize. Here’s this big cube. Can you imagine 1000 of these? (barely) Now think about 1000 of these being spent every 15 minutes! etc.
The number visually scrolling on a board where you can see it growing by the second, as the debtclock does, is a visualization tool. Writing down a static number doesn’t cut it.
I don’t think the scrolling billboard cuts it either, though. It’s still a number people can’t comprehend, whether it’s changing or not.
Do anything for Debtklok
Do anything for Debtklok
Do anything for Debtklok
Do anything for Debtklok
Do anything for Debtklok
Debtklok, Debtklok, Debtklok, Debtklok
I’ll, Teach you, to, borrow…
Debtklok, Debtklok
Big bailout for A.I.G.
But Lehman Brothers you’re history
Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, Fannie Mae,Fannie Mae
W, the Decider, doodily doo. (Ding-dong, doodily, doodily, doo.)
Credit Explosion
Debtklok, Debtklok, Debtklok, Debtklok
1,000,000 seconds is ~11 days. 1,000,000,000 seconds is 37 years.