I came across a really thought-provoking piece on Boston.com: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/gallery/050207_TheCostofWar/"[The] total cost of the Iraq war may reach $456 billion in September."
That's almost half a trillion dollars!!!
So... it leads one to wonder: What would $456 billion buy?
(These are in no particular order):
1. Being a new university grad about to pay back a huge loan... this one really irks me... $456 billion could have bought "At published rates for next year, 14.5 million free rides for a year at Harvard... or 44 million at the University of Massachusetts."
2. With gas prices sky-rocketing... $456 billion could have bought "Free gas for everybody for 1.2 years US drivers consume approx. 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day." (This is problematic in itself...but that's another topic...) "Retail prices averaged $2.64 a gallon in 2006. Breaking it down, $456 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 449 days.
3. With climate change and environmental sustainability a growing concern, $456 billion could have bought "With just one-sixth of the US money targeted for the Iraq war, you could convert all cars in America to run on ethanol. TheBudgetGraph.com estimates that converting the 136,568,083 registered cars in the United States to ethanol (conversion kits at $500) would cost $68.2 billion."
4. And the one that touches my heart the most... $456 billion could have bought "According to World Bank estimates, $54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth. At the upper range of those estimates, the $456 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world's poor for five and a half years."
I guess the way it's spent says something about the priorities of those in power who are spending it.
Of course there are many other ways $456 billion dollars could be spent... what are some of your ideas?
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