Special Saturday Posting
Normally I take Saturday off, but this CBC posting about what the U.S.A. could have done with what they have spent on the Iraq war (evidently a Trillion dollars) what they could have done instead. Maybe the Bare Naked Ladies could rewrite their “If I had a million dollars” song?
The CBC took the easy route, so let’s go for more obtuse ideas about what could be done with a trillion dollars (U.S.):
- They could have paid off 0.1% of their national debt? Interesting, but what is the fun of that, this money is FOUND money.
- They could buy everyone on earth a $100 US Savings bond, for their future saving? Make the people earn it however, by making each person count to 100.
- They could buy Canada. If they promised to pay every Canadian $30,000, I think we’d sell. Better still, they could buy every Canadian a new Toyota Camry !
- It was also pointed out they could buy Canada by paying off all debt held by all levels of government in Canada. Again, this is FOUND money, let’s BLOW it!
- They could hire me as a budget consultant, I would only take 1/2 of the money as payment.
- They could buy a trillion dollars worth of lottery tickets, and then, boy they could make some money.
- They could have put that towards Cancer research or AIDS research, but how boring would that have been? Curing a major illness, we already did this for polio.
- They could build a bridge from Florida to Cuba? Maybe a tunnel? No, I think someone is already doing that.
- They could get doctors to resurrect Joey Ramone, yes, frivolous, but still, I’d be happy.
What would you do with a Trillion Dollars? Discuss.
I think it would be cheaper and more effective to build power plants from established clean energy sources than to waste it on research. Not that research is bad, but if the government funded it, it would be wasted money.
I agree that we need to deal with Cancer, but I believe that current Cancer research is just a diversion. There’s no incentive to really cure Cancer because of the massive economic benefit of having so many sick people. Spend the money instead on educating people about nutrition and then pass laws prohibiting chemicals in our foods.
Who wants a $100 bond in US currency?
With a trillion, the Toronto subway could run the length of Yonge St. If we each got a Camry instead, the money could be spent building huge parking lots instead 🙂
I think the USA should have spent the trillion on developing nuclear fusion technology. If successful, this would have eliminated the need to invade Iraq (for it’s oil) and would have been a huge benefit for the environment through the reduction of greenhouse gases.
There is a great story on this at:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=2785016f-0338-4253-b594-aeee1ca49385&k=57937
OK, I blew that one, so they could pay off 11.1% of the national debt, that would be cool too.
Since when is one trillion dollars 0.1% of nine trillion dollars?
P.S. I’d buy Toronto a REALLY LENGTHY subway network. 🙂
Sorry, but 0.1% of their national debt? That debt is $9 trillion, so $1 trillion of that should be 11.1%. Am I missing something?