Whatever your political persuasion or opinion on the governments actions on the economy and the federal budget, you probably have to agree that your eyes glaze over and your brain freezes when numbers like trillions, billions, and hundreds of millions are tossed out casually at press conferences and announcements.  We hear the number, say $100 million, and think, “That’s a big number. Those guys are doing a lot! What impressive action they’re taking.”  It makes for a persuasive and potent sound bite of “information” to the average person trying to follow the debate on the budget.  Now I put the word “information” in quotes because I believe that when a specific number is tossed out, we think we have received something that helps us understand, i.e. information.  The problem is that we really don’t understand the concept of scale when it comes to these kinds of numbers.

So what does it mean when a government leader says that he or she is going to cut the budget by $100 million?  Should we be impressed?  How big an impact will that be on our national debt and budget crisis?

Now think about this … $100 million is only 0.0026% of Exxon’s revenues in 2009 of $442,851,000,000. It’s not even a hundredth of a percent.

Or what about this … it’s just 17.9% of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s 2009 compensation of $556,980,000.  He could lose $100 million in a modestly off year for his business and still have plenty to meet his basic needs.

But this student created video visually puts the issue of scale and big numbers in clear perspective.  Watch this simple visualization of the federal budget and what $100 million in cuts actually represents.   Then next time you’re listening to the budget and economic debates, see if your perspective changes.