In his satirical piece “Nation with Crumbling Bridges and Roads Excited to Build Giant Wall,” Andy Borowitz joked:
As America’s bridges, roads, and other infrastructure dangerously deteriorate from decades of neglect, there is a mounting sense of urgency that it is time to build a giant wall.
The cost of construction of Trump’s Berlin Wall bordering Mexico is estimated at $25 billion. Here are 10 other things we could do with $25 billion.
1. Hire 50,000 teachers for 10 years
In 2015, the U.S. ranked 45th in math and 27th in science according to a study by Pew Research. At $50,000 per year, we could hire 50,000 teachers for 10 years.
Principal Cynthia Bernard leads a meeting of new teachers at Eisenhower Elementary.
2. 50,000 miles of road repair
A large pot hole on Second Avenue in the East Village of New York City deep enough to contain a traffic pylon and several bags of garbage.
It’s estimated that the cost of poor roads on the average urban driver is $516 per year. This money is spent on blown tires, broken axles, and worn-out shocks. The condition of our roads is appalling.
At an estimate of $500,000 per mile to repair a road, we could repair 50,000 miles of roads in the United States.
This would save us 6 to 14 times in the long term, as every $1 spent to keep a road in good condition avoids $6 to 14 spent later once it’s deteriorated. It can cost up to 14 times the amount to build a new road compared to keeping a road in good condition.
3. Feed more than 3.4 million people three meals a day for a year
Assuming the high cost of $20 per day to feed a person ($5 breakfast, $7 lunch, $8 dinner), we could feed 3.42 million people three meals a day for a year.
With likely costs much lower, we could feed a whole lot more.
4. Build new streetcar systems in 50 cities
Public transit leads to development and also to reduced oil/gas consumption. The city of Portland has seen $2.3 billion in private investment within three miles of its streetcar line.
With $25 billion, we could build 1,000 miles of streetcar systems or roughly, at 20 miles per system, new systems in 50 cities.
Car 1175 of the Cincinnati Streetcar system, the first CAF streetcar to be delivered, being towed along the line during initial testing.
5. Run fiber Internet connections to 8.3 million households
At an estimated $3,000 per home, we could run fiber connections to 8.3 million households.
Are you tired of paying some of the highest costs in the world for the slowest Internet speeds because of cable monopolies?
6. Power more than 700,000 homes with solar energy
A 5kW solar system for a residential home costs between $25,000 to $35,000. This would generate on average roughly $75 per month in savings for the residential customer.
At $35,000 per house, we could power 714,000 homes.
The solar settlement in Freiburg, Germany.
7. Build 294,000 homes and end homelessness for families in America
A Habitat for Humanity house averages $85,000 to build. With $25 billion, we could build more than 294,000 houses.
Sailors from amphibious transport dock USS Nashville (LPD 13) raise a roof truss onto the top of the house they are building for Habitat for Humanity in Norfolk, Va.
According to the National Alliance for Homelessness, in January 564,807 people were homeless on a given night in the U.S. Of those, 206,286 of them were people in families.
We could end homelessness for families and still have 100,000 houses left over for individuals.
8. One-third more funding for veterans for a year
We could increase the discretionary spending on military veterans from roughly $75 billion to $100 billion. Or, with roughly 24 million veterans, we could just give each veteran $1,000. If we focused on disabled veterans (population 3.8 million), we could give each disabled vet $6,500.
9. Provide 35.7 million laptops to our kids and whoever needs them
At a cost of $700 each, we could provide PC laptops to 35.7 million people.
A Mac for every student?
Macintosh laptops are roughly double the cost so we could only provide them to 17.8 million people.
The number of students attending college in 2015 in the United States was estimated at 20.2 million.
10. Fight the Zika virus 12 times over
President Obama requested $1.9 billion to fight the Zika virus. This bill has still not been passed by Congress.
Instead of building the wall, we could fight the Zika virus 12 times over.
Summary
The numbers above are not intended to be gospel, but are used for estimates. Surely there are estimators out there who can do a better job. If so, please post kindly in the comments.
The real point this brings to light, however, is twofold.
First, this idea that we don’t have any money for things is bunk. We always seem to have money for Republican priorities of wars, walls, and tax breaks for the rich.
Second, if we want to know why our country is in such bad shape, look no further than our priorities. If you want to know what someone really believes in, look at what they spend money on. What we spend money on is wars, walls, and making sure a very few wealthy people profit off everyone else’s efforts and hard work.
David Akadjian is the author of The Little Book of Revolution: A Distributive Strategy for Democracy (ebook now available).
