Hello Infographics fans, and welcome to another special challenge episode of The Infographics
Show.
Today we're taking on the US defense budget, and asking you to find a way to spend every
penny in 24 hours.
As usual you're not allowed to give anything away to charity, and you have to spend all
of it or return everything you bought and pay back everything you spent.
Just like last time if you fail all the money goes instead to an organization dedicated
to kicking kittens- but this time we're adding some innocent puppies into the mix too.
So think you can do a better job then us?
Stay tuned and let us know after the video!
For fiscal year 2019 the US Defense budget stands at a whopping $716 billion, largest
it's ever been.
Yet while this figure may seem astronomical, in reality it's only a few percentage points
of the US's total GDP, and a far cry from World War II when the US spent almost 50%
of its GDP on defense!
Ever since the decline of the Soviet Union the US's defense budget has steadily decreased
from 6.8% of GDP to about 4.5% today- so while the figure has grown in dollars, it's largely
stayed pace with US economic growth.
So how can we blow through $716 billion in 24 hours?
We here at The Infographics Show are big fans of space exploration, and while sending robots
and drones to the outer reaches of the solar system are a great and safe way to gather
data, nothing compares to the achievements of the US's Apollo space program, which brought
us the first human visitors to a heavenly body.
Our first item on our list is thus going to be a resurrection of the entire Apollo space
program- that's right, we're going to do what the US and governments around the world have
been reluctant to do for decades: we're putting humans back in space.
None of this low-orbit hanging around nonsense either, we're looking at the moon and then
after that, Mars.
We've got places to go, and aliens to meet!
But getting humans back into deep space after our decades-long hiatus isn't going to be
easy, we're gonna have to take it easy, so first we're going to return to the moon a
few times in order to try out new technologies and make sure we still know how to survive
past low earth orbit.
At a cost of 25.4 billion dollars in 1973, re-launching the entire Apollo Program today
would cost about $144.3 billion.
But on second thought- we've been to the moon, why are we going back to old stomping grounds?
Let's skip the moon instead and just head straight to Mars!
Due to a severe lack of vision on our elected leaders behalf, costs right now for a mission
to Mars are difficult to ascertain- but it's estimated that a Mars mission by 2035 would
cost $230 billion dollars.
Because Mars is so far away and could take up to a year and a half to reach, our crew
won't be flying in a regular space capsule- instead we'll be building a multi-hubbed traveling
space station, complete with living and research facilities.
Therefore our $230 billion price tag would cover the costs of multiple launches of NASA's
new space workhorse, the Space Launch System, all to get the pieces of our spacecraft into
orbit.
Nine months later we'll be touching down on the lonely red planet and planting our Infographics
flag on mankind's new frontier!
That's $230 billion down, and $486 billion to go!
Putting humanity back on a path to the stars though is going to require some smart thinkers,
so we think the smartest thing to do is to invest in America's students.
For years the US has debated free higher education for its millions of students, with considerable
pushback from those who view the cost as too great to bear.
Lucky for us, we've got hundreds of billions to give away for free and think that investing
in education is a pretty smart bet- so we're going to pay for four years of college for
all American students.
With an estimated $75 billion a year cost, that brings the total figure to $300 billion
for four years, which we think is a small price to pay for the influx of new engineers,
scientists, and economists that we'll receive in 4 years.
Truthfully though we're just following in the footsteps of US history- after World War
II the MGI Bill provided free college education to returning war veterans, seeing a whopping
8 million service members earn their degrees.
The MGI Bill in many respects helped build the foundation of scientists, engineers, teachers
and thinkers who created the information age and catapulted the United States to its position
as a global leader.
That puts us at $530 billion, leaving us with $186 billion to go!
The UN estimates that nearly 800 million people don't have enough to eat every day- that's
about 10% of the world's population.
In order to combat world hunger, the UN wants to bring individuals around the world up to
the World Bank's poverty line of $1.25 a day- which would cost the world $116 billion a
year.
However, just feeding people isn't solving the problem, and in order to radically change
the conditions of hundreds of millions of impoverished or working poor people around
the world the UN sees a need for an aggressive program of expanding irrigation, infrastructure,
and creating credit facilities and cash transfers via aid programs to help farmers and workers
get access to tools they need to help themselves.
That would cost the entire planet an estimated $151 billion a year, or right around .15%
of the total global GDP.
To us, investing in people so they can help themselves is far more attractive option than
just a hand out, so we're going to put up the $151 billion needed for the first year
of the UN's program to help the global poor.
That brings our total expenses so far to $681 billion, leaving us with $35 billion.
For our next few purchases, we think we've been more than charitable already- it's time
to spend on us, and boy have we got a special purchase in mind.
Move over, Queen Elizabeth, cuz your fancy digs are now officially ours.
With 775 rooms and sitting 5 stories across 828,821 square feet, Buckingham palace is
the most iconic residence in the world, and at a value of 2.7 billion US dollars, it's
practically a steal for our oversized budget.
But why stop with the Queen's home?
What's a kingly castle- or queenly in this case we suppose- without the bling that goes
along with it?
Spanning a collection of over 140 objects that range from crowns to swords, to altar
plates and fancy robes, and encrusted with 23,578 precious stones, the Crown jewels of
the United Kingdom are the most expensive collection of jewelry in the world.
This collection includes items such as the Cullinan I, the largest clear cut diamond
in the world at 530 carats, and the coronation spoon used to anoint the monarch as Supreme
Governor of the Church of England way back in the 12thcentury!
Estimates vary, but run as high as 6.3 billion US dollars for the whole collection!
That brings our total to $9 billion for our fancy new digs and our serious world class
bling, for a grand total of $690 billion, and $26 billion left over.
Next up we're going to indulge a little bit in our love for soccer and basketball both.
In 2018 the most valuable soccer clubs in the world were Manchester United at 4.1 billion,
and Real Madrid at 4.09 billion, with each team pulling in $737 and $735 million in revenue
every year.
At a combined price of 8.19 billion dollars, buying up these two soccer heavyweights- or
football as they are known literally everywhere but the US- is a smart investment, but we're
not done.
You have to spend money to make money, and we're going to go ahead and spend another
6.9 billion to buy two of the most popular basketball teams in the world: the New York
Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers, each worth 3.6 and 3.3 billion respectively, and pulling
in $426 million and $371 million every year, for a combined total of $797 million revenue
a year!
That nets us a total income of 2.3 billion dollars every year for a one-time fee of $15.1
billion dollars- a very smart investment indeed!
That brings our total costs to $705.1 billion dollars, leaving us with $10.9 billion.
Our last purchase is going to be something for all of you- our adoring fans.
With 3,985,480 of you subscribed to us as of this writing, and more of you pushing us
to 4 million and beyond every day, we wanted to say thank you- so we're going to spend
10.9 billion dollars to buy all of you 34,187 ice cream sandwiches!
That's 93 sandwiches you can eat per day for an entire year, or enough ice cream sandwiches
to last you for 94 years if you ate one a day!
That's one heck of a tasty thank you from us to you!
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So how would you spend the entirety of the US defense budget- $716 billion dollars?
How many ice cream sandwiches would that buy?
Think you got a better list than us?
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Spend 1 billion dollars in 24 hours
or lose it all Challange!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!”