If I were to spend a dollar every minute…

Mr. William H. Stewart provided a means of visualizing how much $500 million is: By placing the one dollar bill end-to-end from Saipan, it would stretch the length of reaching the west coast and back four times. I think of it this way.

If I had $500,000,000 placed under my pillow (and not earning interest in a bank) and I spend one dollar for every second of every minute of each day, I would be spending $86,400 daily. That means that it would take me close to 16 years to spend the half a billion dollars. For the $902 million, it would take me just about 29 years.

For those making $10 an hour, considering that you take home 80 percent of your gross pay and work 2,080 hours annually, it would take you over five years to earn the $86,400 that I must spend on a daily basis to finish the $500 million in 16 years or the $902 million in 29 years.

To paraphrase the late genius John Lennon, “Imagine.” If people only truly cared enough about one another.

Gregorio C. Sablan
Garapan, Saipan