Sunday, January 02, 2005
On being stingy
"We are six percent or less of the world's population, yet we give almost half. We are a very small number of people, relatively speaking, and we carry the weight of a dozen countries. Secondly, we maintain a military structure that keeps the peace of the world.....Who is in the Indian Ocean with the aircraft carriers, helicopters, skilled personnel? No one has the infrastructure in the world, we spend almost half a trillion dollars a year on our military structure, which is essentially the fire department of the planet and it is always at the disposal of people hit in a national disaster.....Incidentally on food aid, we give 60% of all the food aid in the world. It is simply irresponsible to talk about the U.S. as anything other than the most generous nation on the planet."
- Charles Krauthammer
"When people need aid it matters not a whit whether the food they are eating, the clean water they are drinking or the clothes that are keeping them warm represent .1% of their donors GDP or 10%. What matters is that they have enough for themselves, their families and their fellow disaster victims. When the United States gives (at last count) $350 million in aid to the tsunami aid effort that will buy aid for X numbers of people. When a smaller country gives $35 million it will buy aid for 10% of X. That leaves 90% of X going hungry, thirsty, unsheltered, etc."
- from "stealthbiker" in a comment at Belmont Club
"GAO figures on Nimitz-class carriers shows the carrier annual costs about $424 million. The remainder of the carrier group is composed of the USS Shiloh ($28), USS Benfold ($25), USS Shoup ($25), USS Louisville ($21), USS Rainier ($16), plus smaller support vessels. About $1.5 million per day.The USS Bonhomie Richard (LHD-6) with 6 operating rooms and 600 hospital beds costs less than a carrier; and it's group includes marines of the 15th Marine EU, along with amphibious ships USS Duluth ($22.5) and USS Rushmore ($20), USS Bunker Hill ($28), USS Milius ($20), USS Thach ($16), USS Pasadena ($16), and cutter Munro. About $1 million per day. [Cost estimates from FAS] The LHD ships have advanced ship-to-shore transportation capabilities, like hovercraft, that could (?) make a huge increase in tonnage delivered to the devestated areas.The actual costs will be higher in relief operations; running the desalination to capacity, the helicopters flying 24 hours, everything except weaponry working at full capacity. Commercial choppers cost $200 an hour or more, and the price of two dozen helicopters around the clock is over $100,000 a day for the transportation. For each month of operation operational costs alone will exceed $75 million. Material, food, water, medicine and medical care will all add to that; and this only covers the naval forces.It's true those costs would be spent without relief efforts; but like money in the bank it's not a donation until it's applied to the aid project. At that point, it is a contribution. Spin-off benefits like goodwill do not diminish the donation any more than they reduce or eliminate the donation amounts that many prominent European nations make for 'development' --which is not the same as emergency aid."
- from "subpatre" in a comment at Belmont Club
- Charles Krauthammer
"When people need aid it matters not a whit whether the food they are eating, the clean water they are drinking or the clothes that are keeping them warm represent .1% of their donors GDP or 10%. What matters is that they have enough for themselves, their families and their fellow disaster victims. When the United States gives (at last count) $350 million in aid to the tsunami aid effort that will buy aid for X numbers of people. When a smaller country gives $35 million it will buy aid for 10% of X. That leaves 90% of X going hungry, thirsty, unsheltered, etc."
- from "stealthbiker" in a comment at Belmont Club
"GAO figures on Nimitz-class carriers shows the carrier annual costs about $424 million. The remainder of the carrier group is composed of the USS Shiloh ($28), USS Benfold ($25), USS Shoup ($25), USS Louisville ($21), USS Rainier ($16), plus smaller support vessels. About $1.5 million per day.The USS Bonhomie Richard (LHD-6) with 6 operating rooms and 600 hospital beds costs less than a carrier; and it's group includes marines of the 15th Marine EU, along with amphibious ships USS Duluth ($22.5) and USS Rushmore ($20), USS Bunker Hill ($28), USS Milius ($20), USS Thach ($16), USS Pasadena ($16), and cutter Munro. About $1 million per day. [Cost estimates from FAS] The LHD ships have advanced ship-to-shore transportation capabilities, like hovercraft, that could (?) make a huge increase in tonnage delivered to the devestated areas.The actual costs will be higher in relief operations; running the desalination to capacity, the helicopters flying 24 hours, everything except weaponry working at full capacity. Commercial choppers cost $200 an hour or more, and the price of two dozen helicopters around the clock is over $100,000 a day for the transportation. For each month of operation operational costs alone will exceed $75 million. Material, food, water, medicine and medical care will all add to that; and this only covers the naval forces.It's true those costs would be spent without relief efforts; but like money in the bank it's not a donation until it's applied to the aid project. At that point, it is a contribution. Spin-off benefits like goodwill do not diminish the donation any more than they reduce or eliminate the donation amounts that many prominent European nations make for 'development' --which is not the same as emergency aid."
- from "subpatre" in a comment at Belmont Club
# posted by mds : 9:32 PM
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Good site, pigherder. Your writing is clean and "pithy", not pinguid like your flock
good pic's too. SCHWEIN1
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good pic's too. SCHWEIN1
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