Scatter Brained

C H A P T E R   2

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56
S C A T T E R B R A I N E D
the two letters began to lie on top of one another. When, fi -
nally, we reached the peak of our laziness, the hump of the 
P
 
disappeared into the curve of the 
S
 and we were left with 
$.
✖  ✖  ✖
Th
  e largest number of U.S. dollars owned by any one entity is 
the property not of Bill Gates, but of the United States gov-
ernment, which has borrowed over two trillion dollars from 
itself. If you’re confused, you probably should be. When the 
United States runs out of money, we just ask for the money 
from the treasury and give them an IOU (Treasury bill). Th
 e 
treasury then prints the money and gives it to the govern-
ment to use.
The Cost of Money
If you’ve ever wondered how much a dollar is really worth, it costs the 
U.S. mint around six cents to print each of the 37 million bills it prints per 
year. The mint saves some money by making sure that old bills, when 
practicable, get recycled—and that brings us to environmentalism. . . .

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