this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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One million seconds = ~11 days
One billion seconds = 31 years
It's not one order of magnitude - it's three.
One billion vs one million is the difference between a dollar candy ($1) and a full-time paycheck ($1,000).
The space between a nice bottle of wine ($50) and a median priced automobile ($50,000).
The delta between an expensive night out ($250) and a fucking house ($250,000).
And ultimately,
The failure of a working class income ($30,000 - or $15/hr x 40hrs FTE) and the assholes who rule us ($30,000,000).
Soon they'll be trillionaires, and there will be no stopping them.
Elon fucking Musk...
They will stop themselves, their politicians will cannibalize them, silver lining!
Yes, the money on the higher end is measured using a log scale: there are people just like me, 10x richer, 100x richer, etc. simply because money helps to create money even with safe hedging.
The scale is the problem of capitalism, there's not so much we can do about it today. What could be achieved in our lifetime, is the progressive tax scale that although does not stop exponential growth, at least it tries.
And no, fuck Europe. Progressive tax scale in Europe doesn't flatten the exponential incomes, it affects only regular workers. Which may be good, but it's not enough
I'm not sure these examples really do justice to the topic, they help bring the delta back to things we rationally understand but the scale between millions and billions is precisely what the major point is, since a million is already a lot then a lot of these is, like, really a lot, maaaaan.