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1:20 pm
Graduate
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Fri 13-Aug-10
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Munching on our cheesy scones and sipping mugs of tea during a well earned break from pond sludge busting, my nearest and dearest was mulling over the national debt (as you do).
He was wondering whether a little bit of sacrifice from each household would help the cause - just as in the second world war the population was encouraged to do their bit for the war effort by donating their saucepans and front garden railings! We won't go into that as we know it was a bit of a fob off and we can only wonder what the morning porridge was simmered in - and he was thinking more of a cash donation from each patriotic household.
Any road up ......I dashed to the laptop to calculate what the national debt amounts to and how much each head of population would need to donate to clear the tab.
Just a measly little £15 million per head of population. This does not include illegal immigrants, anyone who has pretended to have moved abroad, or those who have taken their first or last breath since I looked up the figures.
1:36 pm
Councillor
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Fri 10-Sep-10
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c'est facile ,all the world seems to be in deficit but to whom ? Who or what controls the IMF after all the money is only notional,pay cash or go without ! Why don't they just say bugger it and cancel the lot and begin again from scratch ?
Seed catalogues are responsible for more unfulfilled fantasies than the web and playboy combined . (after Michael Perry)
2:11 pm
Expert
New members
Fri 8-Oct-10
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Good idea Seth, likin it. Now who can we convince
5:03 pm
Sat 12-Aug-06
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Seth for Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
pronto!
Scary reading, Jenny. I think I will tootle off to a quiet corner and bury my head in that soft warm sand. 
Never knowingly underfed
5:12 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
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That's where I'm going too Danny!
I'll try that again!
6:25 pm
Supreme Being
Mon 21-Sep-09
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Which kind of billion are you using, todays billion is 1 000 000 000 and so by my calculations it is only a debt of £15,357 which is a bit more manageable. 
7:52 pm
Sat 12-Aug-06
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You have cheered me right up, Joanna 
But now I have sand everywhere!
Actually, I really would like to know the correct answer.
Seth?
Never knowingly underfed
1:10 pm
Graduate
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Fri 13-Aug-10
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JoannaS said:
Which kind of billion are you using, todays billion is 1 000 000 000 and so by my calculations it is only a debt of £15,357 which is a bit more manageable.
My calculations were using the Collins Concise modern dictionary and had a few more 0's than yours JoannaS ie: 1 000 000 000 000.
It's not on, is it, that a billion can vary dependent on whether one uses the US billion as opposed to traditional, dyed in the wool, bogstandard British billion!
It's quite refreshing on the other hand, to calculate that the national debt divided per capita, is less than the average student debt after graduation.
Don't spread it around though or all those credit cards will find themselves being glued back together again.
8:42 pm
Supreme Being
Mon 21-Sep-09
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It's confusing when your trying to read academic papers in development journals and trying to understand which billion they mean. I used the Cambridge online dictionary and it said that the bigger figure is "old-fashioned" so I am guessing in papers they mean the smaller figure for billion.
Hope you get the sand cleared out of your ears Danny
7:38 am
Supreme Being
New members
Mon 7-Jun-10
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JoannaS said:
Hope you get the sand cleared out of your ears Danny
He's actually trying to work out how to draw pictures in it....he too has the light box, stereo at full blast and his imagination is working overtime 1.000.000.000.00 all that in one penny pieces....
Bless....
Who lives long sees much : The diary of my life in Bulgaria
10:04 am
Graduate
New members
Fri 13-Aug-10
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JoannaS said:
It's confusing when your trying to read academic papers in development journals and trying to understand which billion they mean. I used the Cambridge online dictionary and it said that the bigger figure is "old-fashioned" so I am guessing in papers they mean the smaller figure for billion.
Well I'm an old-fashioned kind of gal. Sums never were my forté. I'm going to tell my nearest and dearest to keep his profound moments for later in the day with a glass of wine.
3:21 pm
Councillor
Tue 22-Sep-09
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I have to admit, I was scratching my head trying to understand your figures, but since you never wrote out your original figure, I didn't know where you were starting from.
For the sake of reference, I read 1 billion as-
1,000,000,000.
So, 3 zeros - hundred, 6 zeros - thousand, 9 zeros - million. The one at the start would put the figure into the billion range.
lilythepink said:
My calculations were using the Collins Concise modern dictionary and had a few more 0's than yours JoannaS ie: 1 000 000 000 000.
together again.
And using your figure of 1,000,000,000,000
I would read as 1 trillion.
Please forgive, I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, or a math whiz, far from it. I was just trying to understand what happened....
If you can't be a shining example, be a terrible warning!
3:44 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
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I gave up trying long ago, you can hear understanding whizzing over my head when figures crop up.
I'll try that again!
5:06 pm
Supreme Being
Mon 21-Sep-09
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Michelle, the world has come around to the American way of thinking on the billion, hence the confusion. A billion UK used to be 1,000,000,000,000 but now they use the smaller figure. It took me ages to figure it all out and I have absolutely no idea when the switch happened.
On the confusing end how about the difference between the US gallon and the UK gallon? A US gallon = 3.5 litres (ish) and a UK gallon = 4.5 litres (ish) which makes American cars sound even worse on fuel economy than they are. Took us ages to work out why all American cars ran so poorly compared to Europe and that is a similar car that can be found in Europe not the huge mega cars.
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