The word "billion" gets thrown around today like it's some small number.  Is a billion cars a lot of cars?  Is a billion people a large crowd?  What about a billion dollars? 

Some perspective:

A billion seconds ago it was 1980. 

A billion minutes ago was the time of Jesus.

A billion hours ago was the stone age.

A billion days ago no one walked upright.

Yet a billion dollars ago was 8 hours and 20 minutes at the present clip that Ben hyper-depresses the world.