When people talk about billionaires, it’s hard to fathom just how much money we’re talking about. I created this game to help people understand just how much money a billion dollars is.

Below is a number line, with $0 at the left-hand side and $1 billion on the right-hand side. Your task is to click where you think $1 million is. If you find this interesting, please share with your friends or on social media.

This game works because most people think $1 million is a lot of money – because it is a lot of money. But $1 billion is just so much more, literally 1,000 times more.

If you spent $1,000 every single day, it would take you nearly three years to spend a million dollars. To spend a billion at the same rate, you would need almost three thousand years. If you started spending $1,000 a day at the time when Athens first developed into a city-state, you’d only now be running low on funds. If writing the Illiad and the Odyssey had made Homer a billionaire (and he’d lived for almost 3,000 years), he could have spent $1,000 every day and still be living high life.

The billionaire class controls wealth and power at scales that are difficult to imagine. Understanding the scale is the first step toward thinking clearly about it.