What a war can buy – Off the Top – list of what the money spent on the Iraq War could buyincluding health care and education – Excerpt – Reprint
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 $75 billion (USA) could buy in 2003. Here is a short list of some of the options:
* Free health care for 50,000,000 people in the developed nations. (based on current per-capita expenditures in Canada)
* 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 percent inflation incorporated)
* All undergraduate expenses (tuition and living) in the USA for 5,840,667 4-year public university students (18,377,849 tuition only)
* At least a 17 percent rise in income for each of the 1.2 billion people estimated to be living on less than one dollar a day.
* Habitat for Humanity homes for 1,875,000 families in the USA, or 41,829,336 families in India.
* 37 B-2 Sprit stealth bombers (plus change for 22 F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters and 10 Joe Millionaires).
* 46,875,000,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline (Ohio, March 2003, USA).
* 2,616,887,648 barrels of crude oil (March 24, 2003).
* Hiring 688,206 top-notch UN weapons inspectors for a year.
(excerpt from a list compiled by Jeremy Ross, reprinted with permission from Clamor Magazine, www.clamormagazine.org)
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