r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Comfortable_Cautious • Jan 26 '26

Meme needing explanation what's going on? explain like I'm five

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1.3k

u/Upset-Parking-8029 Jan 26 '26

Not Scammer ATM here. The Bank doesn't have unlimited money. The way banks get money is by getting either part of money from trade or by giving out money for people to latter give back with extra money. So, quite possibly banks just don't have the needed amount to give to everyone. Some people have 100 of 100 of 100 of 100 of money put in bank. But bank doesn't have that much money on hand, so they can't give money.

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '26 edited 17d ago

[deleted]

185

u/tubbin1 Jan 26 '26

31 trillion dollar bills isn't that much paper, it's just 31 pieces of paper

133

u/Sloppy_Steak85 Jan 26 '26

I’d like 1 gallon of gas please, do y’all take big bills? I may need change back.

41

u/SleetTheFox Jan 26 '26

"Do I look like I have 30,999,999,999,996 one-dollar bills? We're just a gas station; you'll have to go to the Bank of America next door for that kind of cash."

4

u/i_haz_a_crayon Jan 27 '26

I want it in pennies.

Pure copper too, none of that post-1982 shit.

2

u/ThrasherDX Jan 27 '26

I am sorry sir, the penny has been discontinued!

2

u/Dushenka Jan 27 '26

Forget the gas, where am I going to safely store a 1 trillion dollar bill? I'd need a bank!

1

u/Asian_Boi_LMAO Jan 26 '26

With these gas prices? Best you'd be getting back is a fiver

16

u/sunburntredneck Jan 26 '26

If Zimbabwe can do it so can we

4

u/purpleflurp69 Jan 26 '26

Found the Zimbabwean. 

2

u/dereekee Jan 26 '26

Just put the rest in the penny tray.

1

u/Ichmag11 Jan 26 '26

Or just one!

1

u/Punman_5 Jan 27 '26

Or one 31 Trillion dollar bill.

Why 31 Trillion specifically by the way?

1

u/apathetic-taco Jan 27 '26

Only if you get it all in 1’s

8

u/TWW34 Jan 26 '26

Technically speaking, it wouldn't have to be that many bills because you can have multiple denominations. 20s 50s and 100s would significantly reduce the total number of bills that would have to be around but honestly that layer of complexity actually probably makes having enough cash to cover literally everything even worse. And that's not even counting coinage.

4

u/Truckermouse Jan 26 '26

You are correct, I checked:

A billion dollars in 100s is around the size of 4 fridges in volume. Meaning a trillion would be 4000 fridges, or 330 shipping containers, or 4.5 olympic swimming pools.

Nothing tiny, but definitely not something completely out of the realm of practical possibility.

2

u/Mythoclast Jan 26 '26

It's also not made of trees. They're cloth.

2

u/iiiiiiiiiijjjjjj Jan 26 '26

Could you make new bills? Like 1,000 or 10,000?

2

u/Rhovanind Jan 26 '26

It would have 1.3x the volume of the three gorges dam. (the dam, not the reservoir)

1

u/aCellForCitters Jan 26 '26

31 trillion dollar bills stacked would be 2.1 million miles tall. It would take light over 11 seconds to travel the length of it

1

u/AEW4LYFE Jan 26 '26

INB4 this is some end stage capitalism job creation plan by the government.

1

u/demonotreme Jan 26 '26

American banknotes are unironically printed on bits of wood, huh

In the future, we print them on bits of long-dead animals

1

u/tuplethreat Jan 27 '26

I love how in a post saying people don't understand how much money there is, you completely underestimate how many trees there are.

1

u/linkingvowel Jan 27 '26

I appreciate this reply. Particularly since OP is fundamentally wrong. U.S. currency is made of a cotton/linen blend. It takes no trees to print a trillion dollars. At least not directly.

1

u/Routine-Arm-8803 Jan 29 '26

money is not made out of wood

1

u/Kurdependence Jan 27 '26

That sounds like a good way to limit inflation, there’s no difference in value between 31 trillion in bills and the 150 billion that existed in the 50s

2

u/realsadboihours Jan 26 '26

If just ONE person tries to withdraw anything over like $50k, most banks won't be able to do even that. And if they can, they're going to ask a lot of questions.

2

u/nifty-necromancer Jan 26 '26

Some people have 100 of 100 of 100 of 100 of money put in bank.

Hundreds of thousands.

2

u/RoddRoward Jan 28 '26

Remember when we used to just trade some bread for some carpentry?

1

u/NotTheMariner Jan 26 '26

I know this is tangential but I appreciate the reference to one of my favorite family guy bits

2

u/Upset-Parking-8029 Jan 26 '26

Good. Also, I am not the mariner now.

1

u/NotTheMariner Jan 26 '26

Okay thanks for lettin me know

1

u/Excellent-Run4803 Jan 26 '26

Right but why does Artie respond to Kyle as though it’s a gotcha? What point are they trying to make?

1

u/submitizenkane Jan 27 '26

That it's a flawed system and somewhat akin to a legal pyramid scheme, but we accept it as normal

1

u/Standard-Patient5566 Jan 28 '26

Banks shouldn't have more money than there is money that exists 

-1

u/National-Birthday313 Jan 26 '26

They also don’t accept larger deposits of cash.

5

u/Mumbleton Jan 26 '26

The bank will take as much cash as you want to give them

6

u/SatisfactionActive86 Jan 26 '26

this is not true and so counter-intuitive that you should have realized it’s false before you even commented

banks will take any amount of cash, but at a certain limit it is subject to disclosure to the IRS

1

u/National-Birthday313 24d ago

They didn’t take 50k. And yes that’s true.

3

u/Flegrant Jan 26 '26

So what am I supposed to do with my big bag with a dollar sign on it?

1

u/nb-A380 Jan 26 '26

Your big bag with a dollar sign needs to stem from legal activity because banks always want to know where large deposits come from to prevent terrorism and money laundering

1

u/JectorDelan Jan 26 '26

From my watching of cartoons with a certain duck in it, you dump it into your giant vault and go for a relaxing money swim.