More big numbers.
The cost of the Iraq war is quickly closing in on $1 trillion dollars. A
poster on metafilter points out:
That number is hard to comprehend. To get a grip on it, observe that the CIA says the average annual purchasing power of Iraqi citizens is $3,400, and there are about 7,500,000 males between 15-65 years old in Iraq. Divide this out, and it turns out that by the time we're "done" with Iraq, we could have hired each and every man in Iraq and paid them their average annual income for 39 years.
What is it they say? "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish.." Is there a correllation here? The poster continues, sarcastically:
In the past, when great pharaohs hired thousands (let alone millions) of men for decades, he'd have some big damned pyramids or something to show for it.
Are we to measure all great endeavors by the height of the facades that they might throw up in our way? Is greatness purely physical? If this is our fate, to measure by what we see and not by what we feel, then how do we measure the axis defeat of WWII? By the amount of detroyed artifacts? By the tons of rubble or the number of facades that were brought down? If pyramids are our pedestals, how can we be expected to see the trees through the forrest?
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the guys: philogynist jaime tony - the gals:raymi raspil
