Barry Ritholtz, one of the nation’s top economics bloggers, tracks the true expected costs of the banking system bailout. His figure of $14 trillion has now dropped to a paltry $11.6 trillion, and knowing how important it is to put that into perspective for the rest of humanity, he offers this:
To put $11.6 trillion into context, lets add up some major US expenses, adjusting for inflation: Take the Marshall Plan ($115.3B), the Louisiana Purchase ($217B), the Race to the Moon ($237B), the S&L Crisis ($256B), the Korean War ($454B), the New Deal ($500B), Invasion of Iraq ($597B), (Vietnam War $698B) all of NASA ($851.2B) and WWII ($3.6T).
By way of comparison, all of that totaled $7.52 trillion dollars.
This has nothing nothing to do with institutional racism. It does make other numbers look small in comparison though, such as a $50 contribution to Management Leadership for Tomorrow, “a national non-profit that has made groundbreaking progress developing the next generation of African American, Hispanic/Latino and Native American leaders in major corporations, non-profit organizations and entrepreneurial ventures.”
The institutions that have partnered with this organization that is dedicated to getting more non-Caucasians into MBA programs and, eventually, into leadership positions in corporations, include most of the Ivy League (Harvard, Wharton, Dartmouth, Columbia, and more), as well as Stanford, Michigan, Duke, Chicago, and other schools. The corporate partners include some of the most influential corporations in America, companies such as The Coca Cola Company, Google, Johnson & Johnson, HP, and on and on.
Management Leadership for Tomorrow accepts contributions of money and/or time, so take a look at their site to see if there’s anything you would be interested in doing to help add a little more color to the future face of American business leadership!
Friday, September 25th 2009 at 11:31 am |
This reminds me of another earlier post to this site which informed us that, while efforts aimed at getting more non-Caucasions into college (much less MBA programs, which is the focus of Management Leadership for Tomorrow if I understand correctly) are worthy causes, we actually need to start much earlier. If I recall, the stress of living at poverty levels actually affects the brain and the ability for a child to learn - making it far less likely that they’ll ever benefit from the extra money waiting for them when/if they finish high school. So much for equal opportunity, huh? Wonder how many trillions are being spent (or not) on getting children out of poverty . .
Friday, September 25th 2009 at 11:10 am |
Thanks Victor!
And regarding democracy, I don’t know. The Founding Fathers did actually foresee extreme outliers in their new vision for governance, with some becoming extremely wealthy and some extremely poor. They sought not equal “things” for all people, i.e. a redistribution of wealth so that all would have equal shares, but rather equal “opportunities” for all.
To your point though, if 1% really does have 90% as Moore’s film claims, then surely it cannot be reasonably concluded that everyone does indeed have equal opportunities, can it? There has to be an unfair advantage for someone in there somewhere! If only Google could produce a heat map of “individuals or entities with unfair advantage,” I’m certain it would have huge epicenters over Washington, D.C. and New York, NY.
Friday, September 25th 2009 at 9:03 am |
Tom I saw the show on CNN about this organizaiton. What a great way to invest in the future of our country. Your analysis now has me wanting to see Michael Moore’s new movie. He claims 1% of Americans control 90% of the wealth. That is not democracy!