5 Things to do with $10 Billion a Month

Today at the post office, I overheard two gentleman ahead of me discussing the  economy. Their conversation lasted about twelve seconds, and ended when one guy sighed, shrugged, and snapped, “Everything’s falling apart. What can you do about it, you know?”

"How about we fix it,” I suggested. My days of holding my tongue are long over.

The terrible conceit gripping society is that our problems are insurmountable. This is absurd, if not insulting. 74,000 years ago a megavolcanic eruption turned the skies black, violently shifted global temperatures, and brought our scattered family face-to-face with extinction. We survived. Don’t talk to me about insurmountable problems.

And no one’s suggesting we tap Mickey Mouse in his wizard costume, ordering a bunch of brooms to clean things up. Instead, let’s just discuss financial priorities. We advise our children to spend their money wisely, so perhaps we should practice what we preach.

The Iraq War has cost us $600 billion. The monthly tab is around $10 billion, and has bought for us a destabilized Middle East, the murder of more than 1 million Iraqi civilians and 4,000 American soldiers (nearly 100,000 Americans wounded), increased terrorist recruitment, increased government, decreased civil liberties, and the poisoning of the global well for years to come.

Can’t we spend our $10 billion more wisely?

1. Defend America from the Disease Threat

Every year half a million Americans die from cancer. And statistically, you’re next.

Diabetes levels are at grotesque historical highs, followed by heart disease, AIDS, and autism (1 in every 150 births now.) Did you know that the United States has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the world?? And does it strike anyone as slightly absurd that in the 21^st century we still have people who are blind or paralyzed?

Over the past several years, the U.S. government has spent a mere $100 million dollars on genome studies of brain, lung, and ovarian cancers; a fraction of our military spending. Why not spend $10 billion a month on vanquishing disease? Scientists have already cured Type I diabetes in mice. Let’s apply that discovery with some serious federal funding! How about a U.S. president giving a John F. Kennedy-style speech about reaching the moon, only directing it at eradicating disease?

2. Defeat our Oil Addiction

Been outside lately? Have you seen that ball of golden fire in the sky?

How about investing in solar power? Wind power? Fusion power? Investing in photovoltaic paint to convert the omnipresent sun into usable energy? How about putting our nation’s brightest to the task of developing cheaper, cleaner sources of energy? This shift in our old ways of doing things would have pleasant side effects in the economic, political, and environmental spheres. A few industries might not be smiling, but when you’ve got even T. Boone Pickens talking about this stuff, it’s time to start listening to the winds of change.

“We need to end our reliance on foreign oil,” George W. Bush said. Let’s do one better than that, Prez.

3. Bridges to Somewhere

How about repairing the crumbling infrastructure in America? We’re talking roads, highways, levees, bridges, railroads. How about some investment in America’s physical bones, which has pleasant ramifications for the economy, instant job creation, the environment, and even that immeasurable quality called “satisfaction” in the world we make?

Rome built monuments to human majesty. Egypt erected the pyramids. China propped up the Great Wall. Humans love to build things, and it’s all the better when it’s done to improve the quality of society. When you’re awarding immense defense contracts while American cities are disintegrating at the seams, it’s time for a serious reevaluation of our priorities.

4. Tools for Schools

The political game of calling education a gimmick for elitists is really old, and it’s time for certain regions of America to wake up and smell the smartboard. Ignorance kills democracy dead. The U.S. needs a highly educated population who understands what the Bill of Rights is, who has read the Constitution, and takes the time to reflect on important issues rather than allowing media soundbytes to fill that vacant space where thoughts should be.

This is one area where liberals are astoundingly correct. Even if the system needs some revamping (and it does) what society needs is a very real investment in reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic… as well as teachers, technology, and textbooks. The time for wearing ignorance as a badge of pride is over.

5. Closing the Digital Divide

In ancient battles, generals would send a reconnaissance team up hills and mountains to get a good three-dimensional view of the battlefield. Looking ahead this way had the advantage of knowing what was coming around the next pass.

Today, over 100 million Americans lack access to broadband Internet; 70 million lack access to the Internet itself.  In homes with an annual income of $30,000, some 79% of children have no Internet access whatsoever.

Telecommunications and computer literacy will mean the difference between being a player in the global market, or a lost tribe in the dial-up jungle. As Ian Malcom says in Jurassic Park, “Story of our species. Everybody knows it’s coming, but not so soon.” Tomorrow comes awfully fast; without technology, a global power becomes a global sick man before you know it.

So… disease research, education, technology, infrastructure, and energy. Those aren’t things I would mind seeing on my tax bill. They represent my investment in tomorrow.