I did a bit of basic arithmetic to see how much the elections in the USA cost. The estimated amount SPENT (not RAISED) by all candidates to date is 505 MILLION USD!!
Now, if there ever was a total waste of money it is here. 505 million (more than 1/2 a billion) is an amount that can easily be put to better use that seeing McCain, Huckabee and Hillary's photos all over town and TV. It completely boggles me how money has totally lost it's sense of value these days. It is pretty obvious that 505 million could easily be used to feed most of the starving in Africa, end the war in Darfur and can be used to create schools in the poorest of countries so that everyone has access to education. BUT the same money could also have been used to put more cops on the streets in the US, given for college scholarships so that we have more engineers and musicians among the financially deprived kids, created day care centers where mothers could leave their kids and go back to work to focus on their careers. I mean for heaven sakes - it could have got us that much closer to a cure for cancer!!!
So much could be done - but instead it has been spent on posters and 30 second TV commercials! What a total waste of funds!!!
It also made me think about what comes along with this spending. No one gives money for nothing. Everyone expects something back. Be it good leadership or a crack at getting a new drug aproved sooner - what in the world are people and corporations expecting back when they "donate" millions of dollars to political campaigns? Have American politicians completely sold off the interests of regular Americans?
And we haven't even got to the real election yet - we are only in the primaries!!! How much are we going to spend when we get there? Over 2-3 billion??
It is truly sad that in a country with so many problems not even one of the candidates (and this includes Obama as well) has actually done anything substantial with their money. I would like someone to build a shelter for the homeless or even give some to schools - anything other than photos and TV spots of themselves!!
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I think you need to get your fact straight. Only US spends over 4 billion dollars in aid to sub-Saharan African nations. Not mentioning the UN and EU countries. Where do these money go? To enrich all the corrupted powers in Africa?
I think that all this aid is useless and goes to the wrong people anyway. I do not argue that there are dedicated people that go there and really help, but most of the money are wasted. And I do not think that 500 mil will feed all starving people in Africa, it maybe will buy them a lunch or something :)
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