Issues > March/April 2005 (#107) > Matters of Scale: Aid and Comfort

Matters of Scale: Aid and Comfort

by World Watch Magazine

 

What's more important to Americans, our comfort or providing foreign aid for natural disasters? From these statistics, it looks like Americans care more about hiding their wrinkles, pampering their pets and storing up on crispy snacks than helping victims of a natural catastrophe. We could expect neighboring Japan to donate well to tsunami relief, but Sweden puts us to shame. The following is reprinted with permission from World Watch Magazine .








Official U.S. aid pledged for tsunami relief as of late December 2004

 

  

$35 million

 

Official U.S. aid pledged as of mid-January 2005

 

  

$350 million

 

Estimated funds (mostly private) budgeted for Bush inauguration

 

  

$30-50 million

 

Japan official tsunami aid pledge

 

  

$500 million

 

Sweden official tsunami aid pledge

 

  

$75 million

 

Sweden tsunami aid pledge per capita

 

  

$8.33

 

Japan aid pledge per capita

 

  

$3.93

 

U.S. aid pledge per capita

 

  

$1.92

 

Sweden total foreign aid, 2003
   as share of GDP

 

  

$2.1 billion
0.7 percent

 

Japan total foreign aid, 2003
   as share of GDP

 

  

$8.9 billion
0.2 percent

 
Japan total foreign aid, 2003
   as share of GDP		  

$15.8 billion
0.14 percent
U.S. estimated sales of Botox (to eliminate facial wrinkles), 2003   $540 million
U.S. spending on all cosmetic procedures, 2002   $7.7 billion
U.S. sales of pet food and supplies, 2003   $18.9 billion
U.S. sales of Prozac-type antidepressants, antipsychotics, and
sexual dysfunction drugs (e.g., Viagra), 2003 		  $20.3 billion
U.S. spending on potato chips and other salty snacks, 2002   $22 billion

•         •         •         •

 

Reprinted from World Watch Magazine, March/April 2005

Sources: U.S., Japanese, and Swedish tsunami aid pledges: various news sources. Estimated Bush inaugural spending: CNN.com. Per-capita aid pledges: calculated with population data from CIA World Factbook and U.S. Bureau of the Census. Foreign aid totals and GDP shares: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Spending data: www.emptytomb.org/lifestylestat.php, except drug sales from www.imshealth.com and pet food/supplies data from www.mindbranch.com .

 

Worldwatch is an independent research organization that works for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society. For more information, visit them on the web at www.worldwatch.org.

Filed under: Money and Finance, Social responsibility

For Your Community | posted February 23, 2005