Joan Beck`s ”peace dividend” wish list recalls the poster of a few years ago which said: ”It will be a great day when our schools get all the money and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.”
Last year Illinois taxpayers contributed $15.4 billion to the military, while Pentagon programs sent only $3.7 billion back to the state.
The $15.4 billion that Illinois sends to the Pentagon could buy 30 B-2s
(the plane that Stephen Chapman referred to as ” … an answer looking for the question …”) or it could:
Build 10 new elementary schools;
Hire 5,000 new teachers and 4,000 additional support staff;
Buy 1,000 new buses and hire 3,000 new operators;
Rehabilitate 17,000 public housing units;
Add $300 million to private funds to build houses for 10,000 people;
Build 400 new day-care and Head Start facilities;
Serve 225,000 additional youths and families in antigang and family counseling programs;
Provide homemaker, nutrition or protective services for 7,500 senior citizens;
Vaccinate 80,000 children against childhood disease;
Improve prenatal and infant health care;
Fund 50 drug education and treatment programs.
And still have $14 billion left over! (Figures derived from Employment Research Associates, Lansing, Mich.)
We can pay for Stealth bombers, MX and Midgetman missiles, Star Wars and any number of new weapon systems on the Pentagon wish list, or we can put money into schools, housing, jobs, day care, health programs, environmental clean-up and economic conversion. We cannot do both.
