Friday, March 12, 2010

Togetherness is a Balancing Act

Non-UltraRunning post here, on the tradeoff between social vs. defense spending. 

As you may have gathered from some of my previous posts, plus the cost of the Iraq war counter I've placed on this page, I'm not and never was a fan of our adventure in Iraq.  There's plenty that we woulda-coulda-shoulda done with those precious lives and $$, instead of just proving that we could kick some mideastern butt.

Just read a great post by Stephen Pizzo that quantifies some of those woulda-coulda-shouldas.  It's sobering.

After all, what good is to be defended well, but uneducated, living in poverty and dying young from preventable and/or curable deseases all because there's no money for schools, jobs or medical care? And the flip side is true too. What good is to have the best education and healthcare in the world if some primitive hostile force can simply march right in, starting killing folks and loot the entire enterprise right to the ground?

Let me cite one specific example from Mr. Pizzo:

CAN DO: Fund two all-out wars in the Middle East
CAN'T DO: Fund a world-class public school educational system

Please go read the whole thing.

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