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Even the remotest possibility of someone becoming a trillionaire is offensive, and should disgust every last one of us. Particularly in a world where over half a billion people live in extreme poverty and survive on less than $1.90 a day.
That said, Bezos is still a long way off becoming a trillionaire, despite what some reporters may think. But the fact that anyone said this at all does highlight something – It shows that many of us don’t really comprehend how much one trillion is. And that’s through no fault of our own. Our brains just aren’t naturally equipped to handle such huge numbers.
One million seconds ago, it was still the start of this month.
One billion seconds ago, it was the 1980s, and the first discussions about the World Wide Web were happening.
One trillion seconds ago, it was the palaeolithic era, around the time when the oldest known cave paintings were made.
An average lemon seed is approximately an oblate spheroid with dimensions of around 10×5.5×5.5 mm. One seed has a volume of roughly 0.16 ml.
One million lemon seeds would fill half a bathtub.
One billion lemon seeds would take up almost as much space as two average city busses.
One trillion lemon seeds would fill the main concourse of New York Grand Central Station.
I studied molecular astrophysics, so I have a lot of practice thinking in very large numbers and vast orders of magnitude, and these facts still astonish me when compared with everyday things.
Believe me when I say, a trillion is literally an astronomical number, and the prospect of a single human owning a trillion dollars is absurd. We should not live in a world where this is even remotely possible.
There aren't even a trillion stars in our entire galaxy!!
So apparently, the 400 richest Americans have a combined wealth of around $3 trillion.
That's also over twice as much as would be needed to meet all the UN's Global Goals for sustainable development. For everyone, including the world's poorest.
0.00000005128% of the world's population could make literally everything better for all 7.8 billion of us. But they don't.
Also, 3 trillion seconds ago was not long after cats first evolved on planet Earth.
@InvaderXan how do you feel about limes?
@anarchiv Limes are great. I love all citrus fruit, with the possible exception of grapefruit.
@InvaderXan fair. I prefer them over lemons in cooking. but all citrus fruit has its virtues.
foods • citrus fruit
foods • citrus fruit
foods • citrus fruit
@InvaderXan i once gave a talk, and put this on a side, https://speakerdeck.com/igalic/building-web-applications-for-the-high-scale?slide=25
and without exaggeration, i think this is the best slide i've written in my life
@meena I love little tiny facts like this!
Also bees. I love bees too 
@InvaderXan
btw, already a billion dollars is a sign that you failed at being human
the choice between giving away everything above, let's say, ten million, and euthanasia would be a good remedy for this
@StroomAfwaarts Yeah, my opinion is very solidly that everyone should have a simple policy – if you are a billionaire, we'll tax you until you aren't, and spend the money on communities and helping society's most vulnerable.
@InvaderXan
that explains your cool knowledge about radiation and supernovas and such.
speaking of which: when will you continue your scifi story?
@StroomAfwaarts Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the story. I'll continue it soon 
@gaige Oh damn. It really is true what they say, all the people defending billionaires don't realise that they should, by all rights, relate more to the rest of us!
@gaige @InvaderXan this link gave me tendinitis
@gaige @InvaderXan omfg. Holy shit.
@gaige @InvaderXan y'all will not believe how long i've had that open and still haven't finished scrolling thru
2 Trillion colonist dollars on military equipment is how we proved (the only proof you need that) Trump plotted to assassinate Soleimani; it was, indeed, murder for hire.
@indie All that spending on military equipment was literally how this murder was accomplished. I presume all they needed to do was check the receipts.
@InvaderXan
yeah, because inflation, or something 
@portpupper It seems like there hasn't ever been an individual who was effectively a trillionaire after adjusting for inflation. Though apparently there have been families who would qualify.
Though even owning a billion is obscene IMO.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2014/03/inflation-adjusted-historical.html