27 September, 2008

How Much is $700 Billion Dollars?

by Rob


We are a bit slow at catching up on world news here in Africa, but I've been reading about Bush's plan to give $700 billion U.S. to the Wall Street Banks, as kind of a charitible gesture to pull them through a difficult time.

At first I thought there was a mistake in the figure, but it has appeared several times now, so it must be correct. I wonder if people have any idea how much money that is. It's something like $100 each for every human being on the face of the planet. That's $100 each for every ophan in Kenya, $100 apiece for every starving and malnourished baby, $100 per person for every homeless person, $100 for every person crammed into the many refugee camps around the world, $100 for every school child in every country on earth, $100 per person for every hospital patient, every soldier, every resident in evry rest home on earth, every inmate in every prison and in every mental institution.

So why is he doing this? He's doing it because a lot of people bought million-dollar homes that they can't really afford to pay off, and they may have to let go of them and go back to just living on $500 to $1000 a week (or more), possibly even taking up rental accommodation until they can save up for something better.

It makes me think of the story in the Bible, where a crooked book keeper is going to lose his job, and so he contacts all of his employer's debtors and tells them that he has just erased half of their debts. Why did he did it? Because he was using his position to buy himself incredibly rich friends who would help him after he finished his present job!

The tragedy is that there is hardly an economic problem in the world (I mean real problems with real human suffering) that could not be fixed with that kind of money, and yet Geroge W. Bush decides to give the money to Wall Street instead! Is this not the height of arrogance in a country which has ignored the plight of the rest of the world?

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