Letter to the editor: Covid numbers and national debt

The May 7 edition of the Trib listed the worldwide cases of covid-19 as 155,481,806. A Google search of the world population revealed a global population of 7.8 billion. Based on these numbers, 1.99% of human beings have contracted covid-19. Discuss.

On a secondary note, our president is throwing trillions of dollars here and there on top of a national debt, which, according to the Peterson Foundation, has exceeded $28 trillion. The projected interest alone in 2021 is $376 billion. I believe that our leaders are becoming desensitized to the meaning of the word trillion, assuming that they ever comprehended it at all. I recall reading in the Trib that 1 trillion seconds is the equivalent of 31,720 years. Do our leaders truly comprehend the scale of trillions? Are millions and billions now regarded as chump change? How does a country repay $28 trillion and climbing? That’s a lot of bake sales!

You are mistaken if you feel that this burden will fall to your grandchildren alone. More likely it will fall to your great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and their grandchildren.

Jim Talamo

Greensburg