www.slate.com/id/2200718/?y=1
willingness to get onboard with the plan, rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties are balking at what's been called the largest bailout in US history. There are about 300 million men, women, and children currently living in the United States, so the bailout is equal to roughly $2,300 per person. That's right around what we each paid, on average, for gas and oil in 2006 ($2,227) and a bit less than our average personal tax burden ($2,432). Stepping away from average Joes, $700 billion is equal to about 12 Bill Gateses.
Should the Treasury receive authority from Congress to borrow $700 billion, the national debt will rise by only about 7 percent. Let's say Slate charged its advertisers $30 per 1,000 ad impressions, a common industry rate. And let's imagine for a second that the federal government decided to nationalize Slate in order to pay for the bailout. For historical perspective, consider that the Marshall Plan, which helped finance the recovery of Western Europe after World War II, cost the United States about $13 billion. Of course, in 2008 dollars that's more like $100 billion.
Niall Ferguson has estimated that as a comparable share of the US GDP, it's more like $740 billion. Lastly, in apocalyptic terms, $700 billion really isn't all that much. If nothing is done to change the way we finance Social Security, the trust fund reserves will be exhausted by 2041.
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