When one of my friends made a comment on FB about the Royal wedding one of his friends referenced the figure $32,000,000, which a little research revealed is the approximate cost (in U.S. dollars) of security for the wedding. Just security. It doesn't include the flowers, or the food, or booking the chapel, or sending out the invitations, or the bridesmaids' dresses, the open bar at the reception (which probably cost a lot more than US$32M). The cost of security alone was estimated at US$32M. So this figure was referenced by my friend's FB friend, along with the comment that "you could feed the world" on US$32M.
The global population is estimated to be approx. 3,915,000,000. Dividing $32M between 3,915,000,000 people comes out to half a cent each. Now I know that two people can eat as cheaply as one, unless one of those two is a pregnant woman. Seriously. Have you seen what they can put away? There's a reason Home Town Buffet tried to ban pregnant women from their restaurants. No, they didn't. I'm kidding. April Fools! What? It's still April. Who says April Fools has to be limited to just the first day of the month? Have you ever tried fooling someone on April Fools Day? Good luck! You can't fool anyone on April Fools' Day because they know it's coming! What idiot thought up "April Fools" then decided to limit it to one, specific day? That guy was the real April Fool. Amiright?
So, back to two people eating as cheaply as one, which we know is a crock. If two people can eat as cheaply as one, then four must be able to eat as cheap as two, right? And because two can eat as cheaply as one, logically that means four can also eat as cheap as one. It makes perfect fucking sense IF two really can eat as cheaply as one. But because four cannot eat as cheaply as one then two cannot eat as cheaply as one so forget this argument because it holds about as much water as Jesus' cupped hands. (I can't believe you went there! I thought you were going to reference the Loaves & Fishes thing!)
So, back to feeding the world on $32M, or 1/2 a cent each. Let me know how that works out for you.
This leads into the real problem with the world today. There is not enough money, not enough food, not enough resources, not enough anything to take care of everyone living on the planet. You can throw all the money you want at the problem but it won't solve a thing. Sure, a few people will live, but many are going to die and nobody can do a damned thing about it because there's just too many of us. Some of us need to die. A lot of us. And the rest of us? We need to let them die.
What's that? I should start by killing myself? Riiiiiiight. I'm a producer (and yes, a consumer). I'm living in a First World Country, with a job, making money, and providing for my family. Other than my employer nobody is giving me money to buy me food, or clothes, or a computer. I've got a daytime job, I'm doing alright.
But all those Third World people sitting on their arses in the dust, just existing (not living, I'm not calling that living because they're alive but they're not living; they're existing) they can die. Because they're not producing. They're not working, or doing anything to sustain themselves, because Karma dealt them a handful of crap and they literally cannot survive without a handout because the land cannot support them. Give them a fish today and what does that accomplish? Nothing! You've fed them for one day. Aah, so teach them to fish, I hear you say. Wise you are, grasshopper, for if we teach them to fish, at least they'll have a hobby to keep them occupied rather than sit on their arse in the dust all day. /sarcasm off
This is the truth: There are far too many people in this world, we cannot help them all, and complaining that the money spent on the Royal Wedding could have been used to feed them is a pipe dream. Okay, maybe just counting all the starving Third Worlders, maybe $32M could have fed them for one day. Maybe. But what do they do for the rest of the year? What about the other 364 days? Anyone got a spare $11,648,000,000 lying around? You do! Excellent! Let's have it. Oh, and if you could come up with $11,680,000,000 by the end of the year...for next year...that would be great, yeah.
People need a hand-up, not a hand-out, but if the country will not sustain them at their current population even a hand-out is pointless. You'd be better off letting them die then plowing them into the soil. If nothing else, at least they'd make good fertilizer. Finally! They're producers! /black_humor off
Don't be offended, accept the truth; the world is grossly overpopulated, millions of people need to die, and we need to let them. It's okay to be a dreamer, but we live in the real world.
/end rant
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5 comments:
I did not follow any of the "pre" wedding crap. but i did catch part of the actual wedding,
only cause I was up at 430am at the gym and one of the tvs had it on.
I could give two shits. Sorry. I got my own shit to worry about and I live in the real world.
I tend to disagree that there are too many people. At the same time, I agree that there are too many people who aren't working to sustain themselves, which is *why* it looks like there are too many people. That's not just a third world problem, as it happens.
A very astute observation, Tesh, and I agree with you. There's something wrong with the system when able-bodied people are able to comfortably live their entire life on nothing but government handouts.
When I was in college in Australia I got a Government loan called HECS for my first 3 years, then I switched to part-time studies and went on unemployment. Except I wasn't really "unemployed" because I was still studying while living at home, so I was just going through the motions of looking like I was unemployed.
Then a college mate offered me a job at his father's factory, and I took it, even though it was only seasonal work (we made Flue Kits for fire places, stoves & ovens, which were only a high-demand item late summer through to the end of winter). So I worked at his Dad's factory for approx. 6 months, then "got laid off" due to it being "seasonal work", waited a month, then began receiving unemployment benefits. Which I got for 5 months until my mate said the factory was ramping up production for the season and he had a job for me again, if I wanted it. Which I did. Because having nothing to do all day is not as exciting as it's cracked up to be. At least not for me. I loved the first couple of months because we worked our arses off during those high-production months and it was great to finally have some time off. We worked 6 days a week during the busiest period, sometimes for 12-hours straight, but we got paid based on how many pipes we cranked out so the more we worked and the more pipes we cranked out the more we got paid. I made enough money during those 6 months to see me through until business picked back up again the next season. Of course the unemployment benefits helped subsidize that a bit, too.
So the first couple of months of being unemployed was great. Very relaxing. Sleeping in, not having to work, etc. Eventually it got boring but usually by that time I'd start working at the factory again. I did that for a few years then finally found a regular, year-round job where I again worked Monday through Saturday, but from 4am to 9am. I had a job with a regular day-to-day job keeping me occupied, but I also had my days to my self, to go to the beach, play golf, etc.
I could not imagine doing nothing but sitting on your sofa all day, every day, living on government handouts, and yet some people do just that. Why? Because they can. It's insane.
I think the anger your FB friend was expressing might have had less to do with being able to feed the millions of hungry and oppressed around the world than maybe just the sheer injustice that someone would spend 32 million bucks on something so potentially trivial as a royal wedding.
Now - I'm not going to get into things like national pride or tradition or a nations "entertainment and morale budget".
All I can do is think about how tight my own budget is these days and imagine what I could have done with just 10% ... hell .. 1% of the cash they're going to blow on that stupid fraking wedding.
(Dammit...I'd take 1% of the 1%) !
Agree 1000% Tomas.
I despise shows like "My Sweet Sixteenth" where mega rich parents throw hugely extravagant parties for their spoiled brats, and the ungrateful little shits have a temper tantrum because Daddy hired Usher for their party instead of Snoop Dog, or they got a white Mercedes SL550 when they wanted a black one.
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