Big numbers get thrown around a lot these days, especially in the context of bailouts, stimulus packages, financial institutions and automotive companies. In fact, the numbers are so big and so frequently in the news that we can easily become oblivious to them.

Senator Everett Dirksen famously said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” But that was a generation ago. Today, we talk in terms of trillions of dollars, making billions sound puny by comparison. But it’s instructive to consider exactly how much a billion dollars is.

There are roughly 110 million households in the U.S. Every time a figure of a billion dollars gets tossed out, it equates to a little over nine bucks per household. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? It’s only a small pizza. Or maybe a movie.

But think of it in terms of your household. It’s a little different when you consider it in those terms.

If the executives at GM asked you personally for $135 (your share of their $15+ billion bailout), would you hand it to them? How about the financial wizards at Citi, if they asked you for $405? Would you be willing to reward their mismanagement with your hard-earned dollars?

Add up all of the TARP funds approved thus far by the federal government and your household’s share comes to about $6,300. And that assumes that every U.S. household pays taxes, which isn’t the case.

One of the main tenets of When Growth Stalls is that regardless of what’s going on outside of an enterprise, it’s what’s inside that counts. The next time you hear big bailout numbers being thrown around, multiply whatever number of billions is mentioned by nine bucks. And then imagine that amount of money coming out of your pocket. You may feel differently about how they should get out of their mess.

It makes no sense to bail out a ship that the crew can’t keep from sinking.