Econ4U.org » millions in trillion http://econ4u.org/blog Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:46:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Video: Do People Know How Big 1 Trillion Really Is? http://econ4u.org/blog/2009/05/01/video-do-people-know-how-big-1-trillion-really-is/ http://econ4u.org/blog/2009/05/01/video-do-people-know-how-big-1-trillion-really-is/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 13:54:04 +0000 Tim http://econ4u.org/blog/?p=584 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!)

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/4428480[/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.

Full results here

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