Landmark #2: What the World Wants
Many big world problems are cheaply addressed, and that simple fact is what I want to present here as my second under-recognized major landmark in our mental models of the world.
This chart shows the estimated annual costs of some suggested global programs. The whole graph represents the annual world military expenditures -- about one trillion dollars. Each little box is one tenth of one percent of annual world military expenditures -- about one billion dollars. The boxes near the bottom show the cost of suggested programs. The combined total cost of all 14 programs is about 25% of the world's annual military expenditures. The chart is a few years out of date, and the budgets are optimistic estimates for minimal programs, but I think the chart still gives you a good ballpark sense of just how cheaply our seemingly overwhelming problems could be addressed.
This chart is based on (and is materially identical to) a datasheet called What the World Wants, copyright 1991 by the World Game Institute, and it is included here with the permission of the World Game Institute. Full explanatory text for the 14 programs shown on the chart is presented in Doing the Right Things, available from the World Game Institute, 3215 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. There is also a World Game Institute web site with a What the World Wants page.
| What the World Wants |
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"It is time we steered by the stars, not by the lights of each passing ship."
-- General Omar Bradley
The Bottom Line
For as little as $260 billion per year, about a quarter of the
world's annual military budget, we could address 14 major world
problems, including starvation and population growth.
