this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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If you went back in time to the year 100,000 BC, early homosapiens are beginning to migrate out of Africa and large parts of Europe are under about a kilometre of snow and ice. There are about 90,000 years left in the ice age.

If you are immortal and begin saving $10,000 every single day, without spending any of it, by the time it's 2025 you still won't have the same net worth as Elon fucking Musk.

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[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 32 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

Stats like these blow my mind everytime. These "scale metaphors" really hammer home how fucked capital accumulation is.

[–] moss_icon@hexbear.net 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Nah, you’re not alone. To me just the difference between a million and a billion is staggering. I really couldn’t imagine being that greedy as to accumulate that much wealth while millions around the world go hungry.

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 8 points 5 days ago

It's mind-boggling when actually put in front of you, how large disparity has gotten.

[–] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

the one that got me was something like: "imagine you get a job at 18 that pays you 1 million dollars per year. You also get free room and board and everything you buy is on a company expense account that you never have to pay back and you don't have to pay taxes. You put all that money into a high interest savings account and never touch it.
You will still not be a billionaire by the time you die."

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 6 points 5 days ago

Yep, it's an extremely effective tool of radicalization.

[–] culpritus@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

https://www.ehd.org/science_technology_largenumbers.php

Many ways to visualize some big numbers here.

spoilerThe length of 1,000,000 (one million) one dollar bills laid end-to-end extends 96.9 miles. This would easily traverse the 21 miles across the English Channel from the shores of England to the shores of France and back more than two and a half times.

The length of 100,000,000 (one hundred million) one dollar bills laid end-to-end measures 9,690 miles. This would reachconfused girl from Washington D.C., USA to Sydney, Australia.

The length of 1,000,000,000 (one billion) one dollar bills laid end-to-end measures 96,900 miles. This would extend around the earth almost 4 times.

The length of 100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) one dollar bills laid end-to-end measures 9,690,656 miles. This would extend around the earth 387 times.

e: A simple one is that there are 1 million millimeters in 1 km, but there are 1 billion mm in 1000 km.

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 2 points 5 days ago

And it gets worse these days. Whew.

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 10 points 5 days ago

wojak-nooo: “NOO! You don’t get it! All that proves is how Elon Musk really is super duper pooper scooper awesome!”

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Going back in time and setting up a memecoin rug pull for the cavemen.

[–] corgiwithalaptop@hexbear.net 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ug say: dinosaur dumb. Dinosaur no invest in NFT.

[–] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

All my Homo erectus gone. all-my-apes-gone

[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 5 days ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: