Priceless

Duncan Green, Oxfams forskningssjef, setter ting i perspektiv i sin ekstremt lesverdige og interessante blogg, «From poverty to power». Hva kan man egentlig få kjøpt for 700 milliarder dollar?

• Would clear the accumulated debt of the 49 poorest countries in the world ($375bn) twice over
• Is almost 5 times the annual amount of extra aid needed to achieve all the Millennium Development Goals on poverty, health, education etc ($150bn a year)
• Is about 7 years of current global aid levels ($104bn in 2007)
• Is enough to eradicate all world poverty for over two years (UNDP  calculates it would take $300bn to get the entire world population over the $1 a day poverty line).

På den andre siden er det bare:

• only a quarter of the cost of the Iraq war ($3 trillion on Joseph Stiglitz' calculation )
• a half of annual global military spending ($1339 bn)

Det er ikke mye mer å si enn Greens avslutningsord:

Priorities, priorities.