Day 135: 6 Billion wasted on US Elections

http://americablog.com/2012/11/2012-election-spending-topped-6-billion.html

The 2012 elections in the US reached 6 billion dollars, which is the highest amount ever. Most of this money goes to media and communication. And also consider -- that voter turnout was only around 50%. That's a lot of money, to convince only half the population.

If we look back at Day 17: Starvation is Murder, where we had a look at priority spending in the world and looked at how much money would be needed to achieve universal access to basic social services in developing countries -- we can see that this 6 Billion could have covered basic education for all.

What about, instead of spending all this money on campaigning, which is basically advertising -- you go and spend money and so something real like provide all developing countries with basic access to education -- that would be real nice campaigning stunt.

What does this tell us about Human Nature?

In economics we have thing called 'opportunity cost' which was also discussed in Day 46: The Economic Problem:

"Within that, opportunity cost specifically, refers to the next best alternative one forgoes for the option which was chosen. So if you have $50 and you want both a jacket and a shirt – and you decide to spend the money towards the jacket – the opportunity cost is the shirt as the next best thing you could have gotten. A cost for economists is what you had to ‘give up’ to ‘get it’. "

This tells us something about our values, and what we are willing to forgo in order to get what we want. This is just one example of how we are willing to invest massive amounts into an election -- but will not use this same money towards creating a world that is Better for All.


Economics is often called the 'science of scarcity' -- and likes to emphasise the problem of having limited resources to achieve certain things. Yet, we are living in a world where we care fuck-all about scarcity and being able to do 'only so much' -- instead of doing something real, like making sure that everyone has universal access to basic requirements -- some parts of the population hog up all the resources at the expense of many. If scarcity is such a problem, then why are we not acting according to this problem -- and use our resources effectively and responsibly?

How many more natural disasters do we need to experience? How many more disturbing news stories to we have to read EVERY DAY? Before we realise that ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

If you agree that enough is enough -- check out www.EqualMoney.org, and inform yourself on how we can make this world a better place for all.

Related articles

• Day 134: Worldwide FOOD SCAM Exposed!
• Day 177 - Addicted to buying Random Crap.
• Day 199 - Christianity shows the way to money.
• Day 178 - The salesman in my head, Buying Crap Part 2
• Day 179 - The Salesmen in my Head Part 3

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Day 19 - Starvation is Murder - Part 2: Feedback

This blog is a response to a comment made on "Day 17: Starvation is Murder".

Thanks for a really interesting article and really highlights how possible it could be to eradicate poverty and the suffering that comes with it. I wonder if it would be useful to highlight which are public and private expenditures as public expenditure can be directed from one thing to another with policy and the amount stays the same as it come from a fixed source eg. tax. Whereas private expenditure is often individual and variable, for example if everyone stopped buying cosmetics everyone in the cosmetics and attached industries would lose there jobs, stop paying tax, take up welfare/services and so there would not necessarily be the same amount of money left to transfer to other more important things. Anyway I would be really interested to hear your thought on this

It would make a difference in terms of where the money comes from -- public or private expenditure -- as you pointed out. Though, within this blog I merely touched upon one of the many aspects within our current economic system which reveals the values we as a society place upon certain outcomes or goods -- which when reflecting upon it, are quite irrational from a broader perspective when looking at the current state of the world, and the abhorrent conditions many find themselves within.

When looking at the issue from a different angle, it does not really matter where the money comes from (public or private), as the essential point is that we are living in an economic system with distorted values. The expenditures listed, reflect the dynamics between supply and demand which is one of the base fundamental systems in our economy. The problem already starts right there, where a person's demand is necessarily linked with their ability to pay for the goods/services wanted or needed (and the fact that there's no differentiating between a 'want' or a 'need' in itself is also problematic). This results in skewed supply and demand curves which determine how much and at what price particular goods and services should be provided -- as they only answer to the demand/wants/needs of those who have money and does not reflect the needs/wants from the whole population in question. This would then (partially) explain the expenditure figures. If everyone's wants and needs were taken as a valid demand, no matter what the state is of a person's income -- these figures would be quite different and the various industries, sectors and markets involved would then restructure themselves according to these new sets of values.   

This in itself is however not a complete solution, as now obviously those with low income / no income still dont have the means of accessing the goods and services they need/want. For this a system ought to be in place, where the Basic Income Grant is a cool first point of implementation, to provide those people with a disposable income. Such a system would however still not be a permanent solution, as there are still so many other points in place in our current economic system which would ultimately render this change ineffective -- yet it's a good start to begin with.

The solution that I propose is that of the Equal Money System, which is a more broader encompassing perspective/solution to our current economic system (than for instance the BIG porposal). You can read up about it here: www.equalmoney.org and feel free to join the forum @ www.equalmoney.org/forum for discussion.

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Day 17: Starvation is Murder

The following numbers show the global priority spending for the year 1998

Global Priority	$U.S. Billions
Military spending in the world	780
Narcotics drugs in the world	400
Alcoholic drinks in Europe	105
Cigarettes in Europe	50
Business entertainment in Japan	35
Pet foods in Europe and the United States	17
Perfumes in Europe and the United States	12
Ice cream in Europe	11
Cosmetics in the United States	8

This forms a total of 1 418 Billion US Dollars

Now have a look at the following table, which represents what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries

Global Priority	$U.S. Billions
Basic health and nutrition	13
Reproductive health for all women	12
Water and sanitation for all	9
Basic education for all	6

With a total of 40 Billion US Dollars

Obviously -- we have got our priorities all mixed up. Even with just a simple point like eliminating Perfume and Cosmetics in the world -- we can  already have the job halfway done to having everyone's basic needs met. If we eliminate military, drugs and alcohol -- we can pretty much assure that everyone's living standard is well above having basic needs met -- everyone would be living a life of worth - a life everyone would enjoy living.

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that starvation is in fact murder

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that failure to address basic living needs of the whole of the population living on Earth can only be a reflection of deliberate negligence of Life on Earth

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that the current state of the world and the manifestation of a majority living in misery is in fact a deliberate choice

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see beyond the Veil of apparent 'goodness' within human beings and see the abusive monstrosity we actually exist as

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have created a world where perfume, cosmetics, ice cream, entertainment, alcohol,drugs and weapons have more value than Human Life

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have created a world where all priorities are mixed up and in reverse -- where our industries and services focus on catering entertainment for a few instead of catering basic necessities to ALL

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that the only common sense way of setting one's priorities is to FIRST take care of all basic needs of everyone and then SECONDLY only look at entertainment

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have created a world of pure evil

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that no goodness can exist in a world where the majority suffers and where this can EASILY be fixed

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that any inaction towards changing the current world system to a structure of support for all Life is in fact criminal

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that there is not one good reason why an Equal Money System should not be implemented

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that if I resist an Equal Money System and prefer the current system over an Equal Money System -- I am in fact preferring Abuse over Life

I forgive myself that I haven't accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that an Equal Money System is the only solution to rectify the mess we've made on Earth


I commit myself to expose the murderous consequences of our current world Economic System and consumption habits in the name of Profit and the Pursuit of Happiness

I commit myself to expose that anyone favouring the current World Economic System is in fact favouring Abuse over Life

I commit myself to show that any failure to act or address the abhorrent lack of  access to basic goods and services within our world is in fact deliberate abuse and is only a reflection of the evil we allow within us

I commit myself to show that an Equal Money System is in fact possible and that it does not take a lot to cater for everyone's basic needs and that all will still be able to enjoy a more than modest life

I commit myself to show that any fear in relation to an Equal Money System is in fact irrational and tied to personal self-interest over the interest of what is Best for All Life

I commit myself to the redistribution of resources so they may reach everyone in all the corners of the world and not just a select few as the image below clearly indicates

 

Anup Shah, Poverty Facts and Stats, Global Issues, Updated: September 20, 2010

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