Ice Cream and Aid

“Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defence each year and instead spend it feeding clothing and educating the poor of the world which it would many times over. Not one human being excluded and we can explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”

William Melvin "Bill" Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994)

Now, is that possible? Are there really the finances available to make the world such a better place if only they were distributed better?

Well here’s some data from the 1998 UN Human Development Report:

It would take $12 billion extra each year to provide reproductive health care for all women in developing countries. That’s the same as Europe and the US spend annually on perfumes.

It would take $9 billion extra each year to provide water and sanitation for all people in developing nations, well $8 billion of that could come from the US’ expenditure on cosmetics alone.

That other billion?

It would take $13 billion extra each year to universally provide for basic health and nutrition needs in the developing world, yet Europe and the US alone spend $17 billion a  year on pet food, enough to feed the developing world, make up the shortfall in water provision and still have $3 billion left over.

And that’s just the start. We spend more nearly twice as much on ice cream in Europe ($11 billion), as it would cost to provide basic education for all in developing nations ($6 billion).

Worldwide military expenditure is $780 billion.

In fact if you took 4% of the combined wealth of the richest 225 people in the world ($1 trillion, of which 4% is only $40 billion) you could cover the additional cost of “achieving and maintaining universal access to basic education for all, basic health care for all, reproductive healthcare for all women, adequate food for all and safe water and sanitation for all with money left over.

Now those figures were from a report published in 1998, so 15 years old now. They will all have increased since then but I’d expect the ratios would be even more embarrassing. Because that’s what this is, it’s an embarrassment. The 2011 report states that a financial transactions tax of only 0.005% could yield that $40 billion alone without any additional administrative costs. That’s between the low and high estimates of the funds now required for water and sanitation to be sorted by 2015, not a yearly maintenance cost, the cost to have it all set up by 2015. The figure comparable to the one from 1998 would then be a yearly value much lower than $40 billion.

Now don’t get me wrong, the issue is a lot more complicated than just moving money around. But in answer to the original question I think it is safe to say that yes, there is enough money to make the world a massively better place and go out and explore the universe as one humanity; together.