$1,000,000,000

 

The next time you hear a politician use the words "billion" casually, think about whether you want that politician spending your tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into perspective in one of its releases:

A billion seconds ago, it was 1974 (31.7 years).
A billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire was flourishing.(1900 years)
A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age (114,000 years)
A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.