$30 Billion/year
UN FAO |
"It is a question of priorities in the face of the most fundamental of human needs. And it those choices made by Governments that determine the allocation of resources."
- Dr. Jacques Diouf
Director General
Food and Agriculture Organization |
1 Billion
World Health Organization |
2.4 Billion people live without basic sanitation. Over a billion lack access to clean water. |
$14,000,000
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation |
Who pays for this? You do. |
$14,000
playpumps.com |
For the cost of one hour of operations in Iraq, we could pay for a thousand water pumps to serve 2500 people each over 10 years. 1 hr of the war = 10 years of water for 2.5 million people. |
1.3 million
National Council on Family Homelessness (PDF) |
I'm not sure what to say about this. For a supposedly "Christian" nation, this seems wrong to me. |
200,000
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans |
It's not just the war itself that's expensive. The aftermath is unimaginably costly for decades. |
19,760
National Center for Children in Poverty |
Even in the new home of compassionate conservatism. |
"At least 3,000"
Alaksa Department of Public Helath |
In 2007, the Alaska Departement of Public Health reported almost 3,000 children were homeless or inadequately housed. |
$101 Billion
The Center for Public Integrity |
Certainly some of this does, in fact, keep soldiers fed, sheltered and secure. And certainly a good portion of this is strictly profit. From war. |
$3 Trillion
Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz
Washington Post
March 9, 2008 |
Long term impacts include paying lifetime disability for the wounded, increased oil futures speculation, which drives up the price of gas, as well as maintenance costs for the bases and embassies we've built in the lands we occupy. |
7.8 Million
new housing units
33 years
of eliminated hunger
12 years
of salary for 100,000 teachers
18 years
of operating the Department of Homeland Security at 2009 budget levels
|
This is napkin math and does not account for earned compounded interest, increased economic productivity and tax revenue from a nourished and sheltered workforce, inflation, or efficiencies from competitive bidding. If you had $3 Trillion to spend today (apparently your government thinks you do) this is one way you could have spent it.
Download a .pdf of the math
|