Nefarious
08-19-2004, 11:08 PM
http://p223.ezboard.com/fwheeloftimefrm14.showMessage?topicID=1264.topic
The Borgen Project (http://borgenproject.org/)
It is within America's power to do something about world poverty, and I'm not talking about those infomercials that try to make you feel guilty about not living in a third-world country. I'm talking about a real commitment to a long-term financial support program that would better the lives of millions and millions of human beings. The Borgen Project seeks to inform, publicize, and motivate Westerners on this concept.
Annual Amount Needed to Address the
World's Top Global Issues.
• Eliminate Starvation and Malnutrition ($19 billion)
• Provide Shelter ($21 billion)
• Remove Landmines ($4 billion)
• Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ($7 billion)
• Refugee Relief ($5 billion)
• Eliminate Illiteracy ($5 billion)
• Provide Clean, Safe Water ($10 billion)
• Provide Health Care and AIDS Control ($21 billion)
• Stabilize Population ($10.5 billion)
• Prevent Soil Erosion ($24 billion)
• Retire Developing Nations Debt ($30 billion)
Figures are from the World Game Institute, based on an annual budget with a 10
year period needed to achieve complete success.
Don't worry - I've got a calculator here. All those billions add up to $151.5 billion, which would need to be spent annually for ten years to hopefully solve the issues listed above. Oh, and while that may seem like a huge number, I've got a couple others for you:
$401 billion - U.S. Military Budget
$165 billion - U.S. Defense Contracts
$566 billion - total U.S. Defense Spending
Incidentally, America's Military Budget is by far the largest of any world nation - the second-place finisher on that list, China, comes in at a modest $51 billion. In fact, if you add up the military budgets of the top twenty nations excluding the U.S., you get $398.9 billion. That's right - America commits more money to its military budget than the rest of the top twenty nations put together.
So let's try something - remember that $151.5 billion dollars that we could earmark for solving eleven of the world's biggest problems? Let's take it from the U.S. Military Budget, so now the budget goes from $401 billion to $249.5 billion. That number is still more than China, Russia, Japan, England, France, and Germany spend on their defense budgets combined. You can still spend that $165 billion on Defense Contracts - in fact, I'm sure Dick Cheney would insist on it. But now what you have is America doing pretty much all the work to improve the quality of life for just about everybody on the planet. I mean, look at those issues America would be spending copious amounts of dough to wrestle to the ground: food and shelter for everyone; removal of landmines; reduction of the nuclear threat; ending illiteracy; providing clean water, health care, and disease vaccines; slowing the population explosion; preventing soil erosion; removing the back-breaking debt burden. How about your Knight in Shining Armor, kids? America would be the most popular kid on the block! How are terrorist organizations going to recruit new members if America spends all this time, money, and effort helping the world? Where will they turn, where will they hide, if every nation that America helps becomes a grateful ally?
There is this pervasive viewpoint that in order for America to have allies, they must be coerced, bribed, or blackmailed into it. Nonsense. It is true that America does have a reputation as an exploiter of poorer nations, and it is well-earned. With this reputation, it is difficult for nations to trust the U.S., and easy for terrorists to find recruits. The way to get rid of this reputation is to stop exploiting those nations, and start helping them instead. There will still be economic opportunities for the West, since as the poorer nations are given a chance to get on their feet and build a solid economic foundation, new consumer markets will emerge. Yeah, so the days of paying a 14 year old girl two bucks a day to make Nike shoes would be over. The upside is that within a generation, those 14 year old girls will have disposable incomes.
Is this all a pipe dream? As long as U.S. politicians are Big Business's bitches, yes. As long as the rich are more than willing to **** over the poor, yes. As long as you decide that any effort on your part would be meaningless, then yes, it's all a pipe dream. But look at those numbers again. Look how small that $151.5 billion dollars is next to the $566 billion in defense spending. Assuming that there are 200 million wage-earners in America, that's $757.50 each to make up that $151.5 billion. And that's only a ten year commitment - after that, the third-world nations would be on a solid-enough footing to handle things on their own. I get a paycheck every two weeks. If I had to give up one paycheck a year for this project, I think it would be well worth it. If two hundred million others felt the same way, we could have this thing licked in a decade. Imagine how many lives we could save. Imagine all those future Einsteins, Curies, Hemingways, Hawkings, Dylans that would have a fighting chance because we chose to sacrifice a relatively small amount.
This doesn't have to be a pipe dream. This could be the greatest thing humankind has ever done. It starts with me, and it starts wit
The Borgen Project (http://borgenproject.org/)
It is within America's power to do something about world poverty, and I'm not talking about those infomercials that try to make you feel guilty about not living in a third-world country. I'm talking about a real commitment to a long-term financial support program that would better the lives of millions and millions of human beings. The Borgen Project seeks to inform, publicize, and motivate Westerners on this concept.
Annual Amount Needed to Address the
World's Top Global Issues.
• Eliminate Starvation and Malnutrition ($19 billion)
• Provide Shelter ($21 billion)
• Remove Landmines ($4 billion)
• Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ($7 billion)
• Refugee Relief ($5 billion)
• Eliminate Illiteracy ($5 billion)
• Provide Clean, Safe Water ($10 billion)
• Provide Health Care and AIDS Control ($21 billion)
• Stabilize Population ($10.5 billion)
• Prevent Soil Erosion ($24 billion)
• Retire Developing Nations Debt ($30 billion)
Figures are from the World Game Institute, based on an annual budget with a 10
year period needed to achieve complete success.
Don't worry - I've got a calculator here. All those billions add up to $151.5 billion, which would need to be spent annually for ten years to hopefully solve the issues listed above. Oh, and while that may seem like a huge number, I've got a couple others for you:
$401 billion - U.S. Military Budget
$165 billion - U.S. Defense Contracts
$566 billion - total U.S. Defense Spending
Incidentally, America's Military Budget is by far the largest of any world nation - the second-place finisher on that list, China, comes in at a modest $51 billion. In fact, if you add up the military budgets of the top twenty nations excluding the U.S., you get $398.9 billion. That's right - America commits more money to its military budget than the rest of the top twenty nations put together.
So let's try something - remember that $151.5 billion dollars that we could earmark for solving eleven of the world's biggest problems? Let's take it from the U.S. Military Budget, so now the budget goes from $401 billion to $249.5 billion. That number is still more than China, Russia, Japan, England, France, and Germany spend on their defense budgets combined. You can still spend that $165 billion on Defense Contracts - in fact, I'm sure Dick Cheney would insist on it. But now what you have is America doing pretty much all the work to improve the quality of life for just about everybody on the planet. I mean, look at those issues America would be spending copious amounts of dough to wrestle to the ground: food and shelter for everyone; removal of landmines; reduction of the nuclear threat; ending illiteracy; providing clean water, health care, and disease vaccines; slowing the population explosion; preventing soil erosion; removing the back-breaking debt burden. How about your Knight in Shining Armor, kids? America would be the most popular kid on the block! How are terrorist organizations going to recruit new members if America spends all this time, money, and effort helping the world? Where will they turn, where will they hide, if every nation that America helps becomes a grateful ally?
There is this pervasive viewpoint that in order for America to have allies, they must be coerced, bribed, or blackmailed into it. Nonsense. It is true that America does have a reputation as an exploiter of poorer nations, and it is well-earned. With this reputation, it is difficult for nations to trust the U.S., and easy for terrorists to find recruits. The way to get rid of this reputation is to stop exploiting those nations, and start helping them instead. There will still be economic opportunities for the West, since as the poorer nations are given a chance to get on their feet and build a solid economic foundation, new consumer markets will emerge. Yeah, so the days of paying a 14 year old girl two bucks a day to make Nike shoes would be over. The upside is that within a generation, those 14 year old girls will have disposable incomes.
Is this all a pipe dream? As long as U.S. politicians are Big Business's bitches, yes. As long as the rich are more than willing to **** over the poor, yes. As long as you decide that any effort on your part would be meaningless, then yes, it's all a pipe dream. But look at those numbers again. Look how small that $151.5 billion dollars is next to the $566 billion in defense spending. Assuming that there are 200 million wage-earners in America, that's $757.50 each to make up that $151.5 billion. And that's only a ten year commitment - after that, the third-world nations would be on a solid-enough footing to handle things on their own. I get a paycheck every two weeks. If I had to give up one paycheck a year for this project, I think it would be well worth it. If two hundred million others felt the same way, we could have this thing licked in a decade. Imagine how many lives we could save. Imagine all those future Einsteins, Curies, Hemingways, Hawkings, Dylans that would have a fighting chance because we chose to sacrifice a relatively small amount.
This doesn't have to be a pipe dream. This could be the greatest thing humankind has ever done. It starts with me, and it starts wit