On October 22, 1981, the government of the United States of America accumulated an astounding $1 TRILLION in debt.
At that point, it had taken the country 74,984 days (more than 205 years) to accumulate its first trillion in debt.
It would take less than five years to accumulate its second trillion.
At the end of FY 2017 the gross US federal government debt is estimated to be $20.1 trillion, according to the FY17 Federal Budget.
Neta Crawford puts the long-term cost of the war on terrorism at between $4.8 trillion and $7.9 trillion when including future costs for such things as veterans, medical and disability costs, debt service on borrowed money, and war-related spending in the Department of Homeland Security.
now.. let’s put a trillion into perspective…
How long will it take to count to one trillion ?
There are 24 hours in a day so you would count 24X60x60 = $8,6400 in one day. There are 365 days in a year so you would count 24X60x60x365 = $31,536,000 in one year. To find how long it would take to count to a trillion dollars divide 1 trillion by 31,536,000. That is 1,000,000,000,000/31,536,000 = 31,709.79 years.