October 6, 2008
Stephen Harper: $500 Billion Man (PDF)
In a Department of Defense document (warning: PDF), Stephen Harper and Peter Mackay lay out the plans for spending nearly $500 billion on the defense industry up to 2020.
YIKES!!
Obviously, another reason to ensure that the Harper Republicans Conservatives do not win unless, of course, you’re into killing people on a massive scale.
Now, let’s try to imagine what we could do if we had $500 billion in disposable cash:
- Solve world poverty
- Give nearly $100 to every single inhabitant of the planet at least once
- Completely pay off our outstanding debt
- Have zero tax rates for all Canadian citizens
- Bail out the entire US financial infrastructure
- Buy a pretty solid chunk of the top ten companies (by market capitalization) on the planet
- Convert the Canadian economy from fossil fuels to 100% renewables
Where’s the opposition to this? Is anyone else astounded by these kind of figures?
What are your suggestions for what to do with this kind of money?
Post script: Linda McQuaig wrote an article on this yesterday:
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/512832
the media is completely ignoring or forgiving this massive investment in militarization.
the type of weapons being purchased should also raise ire: canada is being equipped to fight wars against third world peoples.
$500 billion dwarfs the small amount the NDP and Libs want to spend on childcare. the hypocrisy of the Cons and the media is disgusting.
I agree with this – I’ve seen a marginal amount of press about this issue and I believe it’s a substantial issue.
The scope and range of this expense is well beyond anything that ALL of the leaders are talking about and it trivializes the expense of most programs that are part of the platforms of ALL parties (with the exception of the Liberals).
So … why are Jack Layton and Elizabeth May not making a bigger issue out of this? Why are they not saying that they would fund the financial crisis or loan support for small businesses out of this expenditure instead of blowing it on defense contractors?
It’s these questions that are ticking me off, to be quite honest and it’s amazing that the opposition parties are not sinking their teeth into this.
How do we remind Canadians about this volume of expense that’s virtually below the radar?
By the way, Linda McQuaig of the Star did run a column on it:
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/512832