also from ezra:

good god, americans don't know any freaking math. only 21% of people surveyed knew how many times larger 1 trillion is than 1 million. I wonder if this affects how normal Americans perceive the mind-boggling numbers being thrown around in budget proposals, bailouts, and federal debt, and so does Ezra:

My sense is that there's basically a break point beyond which all numbers blur into "a lot of goddamn money.' A Senator disbelievingly saying that they're spending "$100 million" on health care for poor people probably isn't eliciting only 10 percent of the outrage he'd get for decrying "$1 billion" on health care for poor people.