This week Congress approved President Obama’s $3.5 TRILLION budget. So we wanted to know how many Americans grasp just how big a trillion really is. In order to do so, we took a poll of 1,001 Americans asking “How many times larger is a trillion than a million?” We also took our Econ4U team out in front of the White House to capture some live responses. How did people fare? Take a look at this video: (my favorite is the father who chastises his daughter and then gets it wrong himself!)
How Many Millions are in a Trillion? from Econ4U on Vimeo.
The poll respondents did a little better, if only because they were offered 5 choices. 21% got the question right. The answers were distributed in a manner that is about equal to what you’d expect from random guessing. Until Americans improve their financial education, the public won’t be able to comprehend these enormous budget issues that have so much impact on their lives.
Now besides knowing the answer to this simple question ... ask yourself what are we getting for our taxes? Do you really know? Do you really know the true impact on taxes in this revaluation year? Do you really know what the bonding capacity of the town is? Do you really know what the interest rate will be next year, the year after? There is so much we don't know but have been told that isn't true!
