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The Wall Street bailout has brought upon our national obsession with $700 billion.

That’s $700,000,000,000.

According to Forbes, the Treasury Department admitted that they just picked a really large number. So essentially, they chose the now famous $700 billion number, out of thin air.

But what does $700,000,000,000 buy?

According to CJR, $700 billion is $140 billion more than has been spent on the Iraq war. It is $120 billion more than spent on social security benefits. It is also 9 times the amount spent on education in 2007.

And even more interestingly:

It could pay for 2,000 McDonald’s apple pies for every single American.

I could use 1 apple pie, maybe 2. But I’d start getting sick of McDonald’s apple pies after about 5. Besides, they’re really hot and burn the roof of your mouth.

Other facts I found around the web:

- It could prevent over 200 million foreclosures

- It equals nearly 520 times the amount of Amtrak’s current operating budget

- Roughly 538 Yankee Stadiums could be built

- The government could rebuild Katrina-ravished New Orleans and Gulf Coast … three and a half times

- 5.4 million students could be sent to a public university

Pretty sobering stuff.

$700 billion.

Just wanted to throw it out there again.

I did calculations as well. The U.S. Census shows that there are 305,305,058 people living in America. So if we take that $700 billion and give it to every person in the U.S., we would receive $2,292.79. That’s almost $2,300 for every single person. Doesn’t seem like much.

However, what if every U.S. household got the money instead. Again, the U.S. Census says there are 105,480,101 households in the U.S. (as of 2000). So if every household in America got a share of that $700 billion, they would receive $6,636.32.

Not a bad deal, overall. It’s better than any stimulus package, or tax rebate scheme.

Where do we sign up?