How Would You Spend The Money?

Regardless of political affiliation, we think everyone should know and understand how their tax money is spent. Defense spending in Iraq currently accounts for $332.3 million per day. The scale of this spending is so large that it's difficult to truly grasp what this amount of money represents. $332.3 million - imagine everything that could be done with that money, if the troops had one day off!

From a purely economic standpoint, the Iraq occupation is a catastrophic failure. By spending $332.3 million each day in Iraq, the U.S. is spending dramatically more money than it takes in, borrowing immense sums from China and other foreign investors. Eventually, the accumulated $9 trillion debt will have to be paid back - by the American tax payer.

Unfortunately, the American public has not been given much opportunity to compare Iraq spending with other uses for the money. We hope that by making the figure "$332.3 million" a more tangible amount, we who are footing the bill can make a more informed decision on whether the Iraq War is our preferred use of the money.

This blog will offer alternatives; some poignant and some entertaining, but all in the spirit of recognizing what $332.3 million represents.

It's partly a coping mechanism for us to imagine all the wonderful things we could do just by taking off One Day in Iraq, but it's also a good motivation for us to demand our leaders do something more productive with the money.

We invite you to share with us what you would do with $332.3 million, with economic figures documented by a reputable source: onedayiniraq@gmail.com. We also invite you to contact your elected officials and express your outrage over the tax money that is being siphoned into a military project with questionable productive value.