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Posted: 8:18 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012

Presidential fundraising: Putting a billion dollars into perspective

By Russell Mills

The Federal Elections Commission says the Republican and Democrat presidential campaigns have raised a total of more than a billion dollars during the current campaign.

It's hard for people to put numbers like "a billion" into perspective, so KRMG thought we'd give you a few comparisons to ponder.

If you spent a dollar a second, it would take you more than 31 and a half years to spend a billion dollars.

A billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire was flourishing and Christianity was in its infancy about 1,900 years ago.

A billion square inches would be a square approximately 1/2 mile on each side.

If you had a billion dollars, you could purchase roughly four thousand homes, or eighty in each state of the union, for $250,000 apiece.

A billion inches is 15,783 miles, more than halfway around the earth.

One billion pennies stacked on top of each other would make a tower almost 870 miles high.

If you earn $50,000 a year, it will take you 20,000 years to make a billion dollars.

FEC's website indicates the two campaigns have raised $1,026,320,533.30, though PACs and other funds available to the candidates bring the total to more than $1.4 billion, according to the New York Times website.

 
 
 

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