We've all heard the stories of primitive humans only possessing words to express "one", "two", and "many".  Yet most modern people still think of numbers in terms of these basic units.  When we visualize three of something, we think of one group of one and one group of two.  Four is two groups of two.  Five is two groups of two and one group of one, etc.  Certainly, for things like money, we have relative anchors to which we assign values.  For example, one dollar is roughly the amount of money that buys me one pack of M&Ms.  Ten dollars buys me a used Bloodsport DVD.  300 dollars buys me a Playstation 3 or pays for one-month's rent in a mediocre apartment.  7,000 dollars buys me a ten-year-old economy car in decent condition.  A 100,000 dollar loan puts me through business school.  If I'm lucky and work hard, in ten years, 200,000 dollars could be my annual salary.  If I make the right choices, use my money effectively, and save, I might even be able to buy my one million dollar dream house in twenty-five years.  This is the absolute limit for 95% of Americans.  Numbers above this limit often are simply assigned the value of "many".

So it's no surprise that people all over the country are getting all up-in-arms about stimulus scandals and banker bonuses.  But, to put it in perspective, here is a list of "many"s expressed in terms of dream houses:

0 - total 2008 revenues of the U.S. hemp industry

0.15 - the cost to the RNC of wardrobes for the Palin Family during the 2008 Presidential campaign

0.17 - a Senator's salary

0.23 - amount donated to the McCain campaign by Goldman Sachs

0.98 - amount donated to the Obama campaign by Goldman Sachs

33.00 - Rush Limbaugh's 2007 salary

53.97 - Lloyd Blankfein's 2007 salary

388 - total amount spent by the Obama campaign

398 - estimated cost of the proposed "Bridge to Nowhere", which was never actually built

1,843 - worldwide box-office revenue for "Titanic" 

3,000 - amount alotted by Congress for the Cash for Clunkers program

6,000 - annual budget of the National Cancer Institute

8,639 - the 2007 GDP of Cambodia

8,960 - total amount spent on specialty coffee in the U.S. in 2003

10,000 - the amount of federal stimulus money received by Goldman Sachs

18,700 - NASA's entire 2010 budget

35,000 - estimated cost of universal preschool for three and four-year-olds

46,000 - amount spent on diets and self-help books in 2004 by Americans

50,000 - the amount of federal stimulus money estimated to have fallen into the hands of con men

50,000 - the cost of the Iraq War as estimated by the Pentagon in 2003

65,000 - losses to investors of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC

107,300 - book value of Exxon Mobil

115,300 - total cost of the Marshall Plan adjusted for inflation

217,000 - total cost of the Louisiana Purchase adjusted for inflation

262,300 - the 2007 GDP of Argentina

500,000 - total cost of the New Deal adjusted for inflation

1,000,000+ - total cost of the "War on Terror" 

1,426,000 - 2007 GDP of Canada

2,200,000+ - 2007 cost of healthcare in the United States

3,600,000 - total cost of WWII adjusted for inflation

So there you have it: the difference between the Palin Family wardrobe and healthcare is like the difference between a stick of gum and Shaq's house.