HUMAN NEEDS SPENDING VS. WAR SPENDING

Please cite the War Resisters League, January 2003

WHICH PATH TO A SAFER WORLD?

HUMAN NEEDS SPENDING VS. WAR SPENDING

Enroll 2 children in Head Start ----$14,000
1 Cluster bomb ($6,633 each)

Eradicate polio worldwide (WHO) ----$275 million
3 tests of missile defense system
Vaccinating 10 million children (WHO) ----$350 mil
6 Trident II missiles

Childcare for 68,000 needy children ----$413 million
Amphibious Warfare Landing Ship Program
(CBPP)

7,000 units of affordable housing ----$494 million
Military aid to Colombia (1 year)
(NPP, Times)

Minimum support to save Amtrak train service ----$1.2 billion
2 months U.S. war force in Afghanistan (Amtrak/rail passengers/times) (using $700 mil/month)

Annual salary & benefits for 38,182 elementary school teachers ($55,000each) ----$2.1 billion
1 Stealth bomber

Minimum annual US share to fight AIDS worldwide ----$3 billion
3 days of U.S. military spending
(Global AIDS alliance)

Nutrition supplements for 200,000 eligible families not covered. ----$130 mil
7 unmanned Predator drones

78% of what it would take to replace deteriorating drinking water systems throughout the nation. ----$8.6 billion
1-yr budget missile defense system development


Double federal support for mass transit ----$12 billion
1-year cost of war in Afghanistan (CDI # from US budget)

Healthcare coverage for 7 million children ----$16.5 billion
1-year nuclear weapons program
(NPP)

Save 8 million lives worldwide by fighting infectious diseases (TB, malaria, AIDS) ----$27 billion
1 month U.S. military spending
(WHO/Times)

Improve, repair, modernize 30,000 schools. ----$66 billion
Virginia-class submarine program
($2.2 mil/school; Natl Ctr. Ed Statistic)

$8,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. ----$2.3 trillion
War expenses since 1945 for which the Pentagon has no accounting (per Donald
Rumsfeld on CBS news)

Sources: Center for Defense Information
(www.cdi.org);
National Association of Rail Passengers
(www.narprail.org); Center for Budget and Policy

Priorities (www.cbpp.org); National Priorities
Project (www.natprior.org); World Policy
Institute
(www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms),

Childrens Defense Fund
(www.childrensdefense.org) UNICEF
(www.unicef.org); Global AIDS Alliance
(www.globalaidsalliance.org); New York

Times (11/12/01; 10/13/02; 3/18/03; 12/05/02); CBS Evening News (1/29/02);

World Health Organization (www.who.int); National
Center for Education Statistics (nces.ed.gov)

Frida Berrigan
Senior Research Associate
World Policy Institute
66 Fifth Ave., 9th Floor
New York, NY 10011
ph 212.229.5808 x112
fax 212.229.5579

The Arms Trade Resource Center was established in 1993 to engage in public education and policy advocacy aimed at promoting restraint in the international arms trade.

www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms