Summing up
The news has been jam-packed with all sorts of sobering numbers these days. I don’t quite know how to put them all together, so I’ll just list them:
- Amount of money U.S. government has donated to recovery/rebuilding effort: $350 million
- Current confirmed death toll of Asian tsunami disaster: Over 226,000
- Number of people displaced by tsunami disaster: 5 million
- Cost of Iraq war: Depends on who you ask, but even conservative sources say that Iraq operations will eventually top $200 billion.
- Number of dead U.S. soldiers in Iraq: almost 1,400
- Number of Iraqi civilian casualties: depends who you ask. Some sources say 15,000 - 20,000. Other sources report figures as high as 100,000.
- Pricetag on the U.S. presidential inauguration this Thursday: $30-40 million
- Number of people being inaugurated U.S. president: 1 (To be fair, the vice president is being inaugurated as well. I don’t know about you, but since realizing that he requires routine inspection of his cyborg innards, I get the sense that “he ceased to be Dick Cheney and became Darth Cheney,” and as such doesn’t really count as a person.
I generally wince when anyone throws statistics at me to make a point, since statistics can easily be bent to suit any political argument under the pretense that “numbers don’t lie.” That said, I think the figures above, even without my commentary, offer a pretty good overview of the U.S. government’s priorities. Do your own math and see how much a human life is worth.
Postscript: yeah, I know most of the money for the inauguration is privately raised. So?
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7 responses
Comment posted at 16:07 on Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Sorry, Narayan, I don’t get your point whatsoever. See, I don’t do nuance. Freedom is on the march!
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Brian
Comment posted at 18:04 on Wednesday, January 19, 2005
freedom?
None of the costly activities listed above have anything to do with freedom.
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Comment posted at 17:23 on Thursday, January 20, 2005
Do your own math and see how much a human life is worth.
Worth of one American citizen: $20,000,000. (200 billion / 10,000 deaths. (Rounding American casualties resulting from 9/11 up to 10,000).
Worth of one Iraqi citizen’s freedom: $2,000 . (200 billion / 20 million.
If you divide displaced tsunami victims (5 million) by the total $ amount donated by American citizens (not just government)—let’s say 1 billion, which seems reasonable, all said and done—then their worth is $5,000.
That seems pretty good to me.
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Comment posted at 17:26 on Thursday, January 20, 2005
Although I should emphasize/clarify (sincerely) that $5,000 is not nearly enough.
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Comment posted at 18:13 on Thursday, January 20, 2005
I guess my equations would be formulated differently, then, because the point of my post wasn’t really to highlight what value the American public puts on a human life, but rather what our government does.
First of all, it’s completely off-base to include 9/11 casualties in the figure for Iraq, as absolutely no ties have been found between Iraq and Al Quaeda (until, of course, after our ‘liberating’ activities). I suppose, then, it’s only fair to acknowledge that the $200 billion figure covers some of the cost of domestic security and for operations in Afghanistan. That said, none of that money is, in fact, represents the worth of an American citizen, since the military/civil distinction is quite relevant.
Civilians killed in 9/11 received an average of $3.1 million from the Victim Compensation Fund, which is administered by the federal government. AFAIK, none of this money comes from the $200billion reserved for the “war on terror.”
I guess I wasn’t really trying to make a specific point—again, numbers can be presented and interpreted as people see fit. It does strike me as odd and quite pathetic, though, that our government can justify over $200 billion on a war which has killed tens of thousands and $40 million on a party for one man. If you take the number of people displaced by the tsunamis and add the number of people confirmed killed (so far) and divide that total by the amount our government has promised in aid, it comes to less than two cents a person. Let’s also keep in mind that aid funds are often tied to requirements to buy U.S. products, and some aid funds are, in fact, loans that will have to be repaid.
Whether 2 cents or $5,000, though, I agree with you on your last point—it’s not enough.
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Comment posted at 10:34 on Friday, January 21, 2005
Narayan,
I actually agree with you on the majority of your original points. My only real point is this: often statistics are quoted as an appeal to pathos.
“How much is a human life worth?” is the perfect example. It is a meaningless question - precisely because it has so many meanings, and is easily manipulated given the selection of statistics.
The question, Why are we throwing a $40 million dollar party when people are dying? reminds me of a sign posted on a cafeteria wall many years ago in my high school. I don’t remember the exact words, but the point of the sign was this: Don’t put more on your plate than you can eat because children are starving in Africa. Well, yeah, but they’re still starving—even if I didn’t finish my extra side of fries.
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Comment posted at 11:01 on Friday, January 21, 2005
Sure, Trenton, I follow, but clearly an unfinished side of fries isn’t entirely analogous to a $40 million party, right?
And while I wholeheartedly agree with you about statistics being used as sympathy bait, these figures do list what our government has spent and (broadly) where it has spent it. Clearly some will see the $200 billion as “the price of freedom” or the “cost of security,” whatever that means, and I think that’s certainly the way this administration has ‘spun’ those numbers.
I’ll put it this way—there would be mass outrage if our government spent $40 million on a party on 10/11/2001. Such a party would be viewed as disrespectful. 9/11 killed roughly 1% of the number of people confirmed killed by the tsunamis, yet somehow that money is justifiable?
From my perspective, a $40 million party is a $40 million party is a $40 million party, and it’s $40 million being spent right after the worst natural disaster in human memory. Were it a Republican or a Democrat in office at this time, I think that money would have been better spent elsewhere.
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