Thursday, November 29, 2007

The true cost of war

So we hear the cost of the war all the time now in the news, 100 billion here, 500 billion there, 1.5 trillion by the end of the war, 500 billion just in interest alone on the cost of the war.

Those are big numbers, but really... do those numbers mean anything to you? I will be honest, 1.5 trillion sounds like a lot, but it's actually SO BIG that it's just a number to me, where as the cost to repair my car when a basketball hoop fell on it was $1200... THAT was a lot of money. It's one of the problems with scale, we can comprehend and understand things that are scaled to our pocketbooks (mortgages, price of gas, etc) but when news organizations start throwing around these federal budget numbers if you are anything like me you "hear" them... but you don't actually grasp them.

This was one of the video's that was submitted for last night's CNN/YouTube debate, it didn't make it into the final broadcast but I did think it had a very powerful message on what the true cost of the war in Iraq really is.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I've heard the same dollar amounts before, except it was in a sermon (was either Piper or Driscoll) where the preacher said if everyone who attended church services in the united states actually tithed (gave 10% gross annual income) then the American church could also feed, educate, provide clean water and basic sanitation for the worlds poor.

This is so convicting to me as an American and as a Christian. We talk about being activists for the poor and the sick in our world, but our wallets testify where our true treasures are - both as a nation and as individuals.

.justin said...

nice ryan. i like the bait and switch! no mention of our man RP in the post!

; )

i smell what you're cooking... and i like it! when's dinner?



jeremy: i bet it wasn't driscoll. he doesn't often bang the social gospel drum. which is one thing wish he did more of... not that i don't hear it EVERYWHERE else now-a-days. [i'm not complaining.]