What $75,000,000,000 could do...
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Thursday April 24, 2003 13:19
by wild turkey
think of how 3,759,398,496 fifths of wild turkey would promote world peace!
go to
http://www.clamormagazine.org/warbuys.html
to find the [sources]
WHAT A WAR CAN BUY....compiled by Jeremy Ross
The cost of a war in Iraq has been estimated by the Bush administration at:
$75,000,000,000.00. But what does this figure really mean? I've investigated what $75B could buy in 2003.
Here is a short list:
(1) Free health care for 50,000,000 people in the developed nations (based on current per-capita expenditures in Canada)
(2) Adequate basic health care for 5,122,950,820 people in developing nations. (based on estimates by Dr Lieve Fransen in 1997 and with 2% inflation incorporated)
(3) All undergraduate expenses (tuition and living) in America for:
- 2,709,831 private university students (4,104,416 tuition only)
- 5,840,667 4-year public university students (18,377,849 tuition only)
- 7,171,543 community college students (43,227,666 tuition only)
[source]
(4) 375,000,000 "Simputers" (cost-effective computers for developing nations)
[source]
(5) At least a 17% rise in income for each of the 1.2 billion people estimated to be living on less than one dollar a day.
(6) Habitat for Humanity homes for:
1,875,000 families in America
2,939,332 families in Hungary
3,018,959 families in Romania
29,469,548 families in the Democratic Republic of Congo
30,788,177 families in Sri Lanka
32,552,083 families in Papua New Guinea
35,714,286 families in Guatamala
41,829,336 families in India
[source]
(7) 112,570,356,500 cans of Budweiser beer
(8) 441,176,470,600 handgun bullets ($0.17/each)
(9) 75,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles
(10) 37 B-2 Sprit stealth bombers (plus change for 22 F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters and 10 Joe Millionaires)
(11) 46,875,000,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline (Ohio, March 2003, USA)
(12) 2,616,887,648 barrels of crude oil (March 24, 2003)
(13) Hiring 688,206 top-notch U.N. weapons inspectors for a year.
[source]
SOME OTHER CALCULATIONS FROM CLAMOR READERS: Drop us a line with your calculation and sources.
(14) The average grocery bill (year 2000 data) for 14,540,520 US families.
(15 ) 40,816,326,530 free school lunches under the national school lunch program
[source]
(16) 937,500,000 pairs of white doves [source], 625,104,184 dozen white roses [source] or 2142857142 pieces of dog shit, with shipping to Iraq [source]
(17) If everyone on earth were to have access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities by 2025, it would cost an additional $75 billion a year. [source]
(18) You could use that $75 Billion to pay Enron's top 200 execs' salary for 5 years! [source]
(19) 750,000,000 Tantric Sex classes yielding the unquantifiable SHOCK and AWE of multiple orgasm. [source]
(20) 3,759,398,496 fifths of wild turkey (washington state, march 2003) or 2,145,923,000 pairs of black carhartts (swain's mercantile, port townsend, washington).
Comments (6 of 6)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6Why it is the responsibility of the American taxpayer to provide these things to the developing world.
America's responsibility is to provide for its own interests, not "raise by 17% the income for each of the 1.2 billion people estimated to be living on less than one dollar a day."
Unless you end the corrupt governments in the third world, no amount of money will ever make a difference.
Because and the rest of the west through institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank have crippled economies through Foreign Dept and interest rates that would make it impossible for the vast majority of of those countries who are indepted.
Again the vast majority of those corrupt "third world" govts/regimes have either been put there by US/CIA supported coups, or have been maintained by US economic, political and/or military support.
There are so many other reasons,
See articles by John Pilger, Robert Fisk, www.commondreams.org
Even, "Globalization and its Discontents" by Joseph Stiglitz ex-President of the World Bank would give some insight.
I wouldn't make this arguement before the war, but now that Iraq is a 51st State, the US has a responsibility for the welfare of Iraq - as all colonial powers do for looting and pillaging ... $75,000,000,000 is a small payment for what the US owes to the Iraqi people.
not so much a 'white man's burden' but a colonial debt to be paid.
I'd prefer it paid in good things and not cluster bomb 'bomblettes' however.
How many of them are there now?
Yes, the US is responsible and should build a government that respects human rights for the Iraqi people, because the US removed its government.
I strongly disagree with the assertion that the US is to blame for all the corrupt governments, though. The continent of Africa can almost exclusively be blamed on Europe, particularly France.
You can blame the US for intervening in much of South America during the cold war, but if the choice is between South America and Africa, its pretty obvious which is better off these days.
the bechtels, halliburtons, and dick cheney are the ones that are going to see the majority of that $75B. Now the US government is going to sell the oil (if they can remove un sanctions) and use the money to line the pockets of all the execs that helped fund their political campaigns. corruption at it's best.
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