This is a really interesting issue and one that Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's has been actively involved in. I saw him as keynote at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in VT a couple years back. He stacked up big plastic Oreos to show the amount we spent on military versus healthcare, education etc and military was many many oreos higher (each Oreo representing $1 or 10bil - can't remember). He basically showed how we could eliminate global poverty if we just took the amount being spent on caching certain weapons that we will never use because they're old and outdated. As I recall, he apparently met with several actual military advisors to come up with a real plan. I think applying some of this $ to education is so extremely essential right now!! I just testified at the TX State Board of Edu hearings - where they're definitely trying to dumb down our kids! (7 creationists on a 15-member board of a huge state - very scary).
Here's a page Ben Cohen has: American Priority Pie: http://www.benjerry.com/americanpie/ He's involved in the National Priorities project called http://nationalpriorities.org/ I blogged a little about Cohen's work and the concept of spending http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com/2008/10/poverty-blog-action-day.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wendee Holtcamp, M.S. Wildlife Ecology Freelance Writer * Photographer * Bohemian http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com ~~6-wk Online Writing Courses Starts Jan 3 & Feb 21, 2009~~ Makes a great HOLIDAY GIFT!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Better to light a candle than curse the darkness' -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of malcolm McCallum Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2008 11:57 AM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: [ECOLOG-L] govt spending vs results I often hear that you can't solve government problems by throwing money at them, but consider this. US military is ranked if the best, one of the top two defense agencies in the world. We spend $439 b per year on the military, almost 1 b just on bullets alone. This doesn't even count the portions of military activities conveniently placed in other agencies such as Dept of Homeland security (30.9 b) for example. Meanwhile, we spend $54 b of the federal budget on education, 7.3 b on the EPA, 10.1 b on the entire Dept of Interior, 6 b on NSF, and the list goes on. Our education system is decaying and frankly this is probably indirectly or directly affecting many government decisions. Our environmental protection is rapidly falling. We don't even spend as much on global climate change as we do on bullets! In fact, publicly provide more in foreign military financing (4.6 b) than we do to child survival and health (1.4 b), the post office (3.8 b), forest service, NOAA, unemployment insurance (2.7 b), NPS, BLM, FWS, immigration and customs (4.4b), FEMA (3.1 b). We all know how well FEMA has operated in the past decade. IS IT ANY SURPRISE THAT THE OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS COSTS ONLY 11 M dollars? (see torture) So, it is clear that if we want to be the best at something, it costs money. They only thing we are currently THE BEST at is the military, and half or more of government spending goes that way. I have no problem with us spending to have the best military, but certainly it would be nice if we were competitive in some of the other areas? Maybe ethics????? Maybe spending 1 B on bullets is five times more important than the federal trade commission, white house, or as important as the Smithsonian Institute. Maybe bullets are only half as important as unemployment insurance, NPS, BLM, FWS. IS it better to be the greatest at one thing, or great at a lot of things. Imagine if we doubled NSF's budget to 12 b what would that do? Now, what if we gave our US scientists $439 b to solve the nations problems.....where would be? Would we need our military anymore? What if we gave 439 b to the Dept of Energy for developing technologies that are cleaner? Where would be? What if we put $439 b into children's health? Ethics is an important part of running a government. Is it more ethical to invest in killing the oposition than to discover ways to make them your friend? -- Malcolm L. McCallum Associate Professor of Biology Texas A&M University-Texarkana Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology http://www.herpconbio.org Summer Teaching Schedule & Office Hours: Ecology: M,W 1-2:40 pm Cell Biology: M 6-9:40 pm (don't ask!) Forensic Science: T,R 10-11:40am Office Hours: MW 12-1, 5-6, TR 11:40-12:30, 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People!
