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Cake day: November 20th, 2025

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  • baller_w@lemmy.ziptoMicroblog Memes@lemmy.worldmetastasis
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    4 days ago

    For context, $77 billion is more than most nations spend on their military.

    What we could have bought instead; a list of real problems that money could help significantly with, or fix entirely (generated with AI):

    Universal Healthcare (Medicare for All)

    • Est. cost: $3–4T per year
    • $77B covers ~2–3 weeks of healthcare for the entire US
    • Or ~6–7 million people for one year
    • ~2% of annual national healthcare spend

    High-Speed Rail and Public Transit

    • Est. cost: $50–120M per mile
    • $77B covers 600–1,200 miles of true HSR
    • 3–5 major national corridors plus urban transit upgrades

    Homelessness, Veterans, and Mental Health

    • Est. cost: $150k–300k per housing unit; ~$25k/person/year care
    • $77B covers 250,000–400,000 permanent housing units
    • 10+ years of care for all chronically homeless
    • 100% of veteran homelessness eliminated

    Roads, Bridges, and Infrastructure

    • Est. cost: ~$5M per bridge; ~$1M per mile of road
    • $77B covers 15,000–20,000 bridge replacements
    • ~100,000 miles of roadway rebuilt
    • ~15–20% of all structurally deficient bridges

    Domestic Semiconductor Manufacturing

    • CHIPS Act: $52B total
    • $77B covers 150% of CHIPS Act
    • 3–5 leading-edge fabs
    • Full AI, defense, and automotive supply-chain security

    Fusion and Advanced Energy

    • ITER reactor: ~$22B
    • SPARC program: ~$4B
    • $77B covers 3 ITER-class reactors
    • 10+ SPARC-class fusion programs

    Climate Resilience and Clean Energy

    • Est. cost: ~$1B per GW renewable capacity
    • $77B covers 60+ GW clean power
    • Electrification of ~10 million homes
    • Coastal protection and grid modernization across multiple states

    Public Sector Scale Comparison

    • Equals 3+ years of NASA’s budget
    • Equals 10 years of US homelessness funding
    • Exceeds annual defense budgets of most countries







  • I understand this rhetoric, but one extremely effective way of changing people’s opinions and broadening their world view is travel. Banning people from the US from traveling will only result in more insulation and “othering”.

    That said, American tourists are 👏the 👏worst (I say as an American). We should act like what we are: guests. I’ve had the privilege to travel to five nations that don’t speak English as their native language and have learned my P’s and Q’s every time and it’s always paid off. I speak the language terribly, but I’m at least willing to try.