What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq [Paperback]

Rob Simpson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2008

The war in Iraq is not only controversial, it's also astronomically expensive. Now Rob Simpson answers the question many concerned Americans have been asking: Wasn't there some other way the government could have spent one trillion of our tax dollars?

What We Could Have Done with the Money presents 50 thought-provoking spending alternatives. With a trillion dollars, we could . . .

• Fix Social Security right now: Stop worrying. Stop debating. It's done. Over. Fixed.
• End homelessness in America: House 15 million homeless families, get a million kids out of foster care, and have change to spare!
• Give everyone in the world satellite TV: Can we have the revolution later? I'm watching CSI right now.
• Pay everyone in Iraq to be nice to each other: Hey! If someone tripled your salary for the next 20 years, wouldn't you behave?
• Go Green: Give 100 million car buyers a $10,000 subsidy on their hybrid.
• Or gold . . . : Pave every highway in America with gold leaf.
• Play ball! : Fly everyone in Iraq to America, put them up in a nice hotel for three days with all the extras, take them to a baseball game and fly them home . . . and have a lot leftover.
• Cure cancer: Double research spending for as long as it takes.

. . . not to mention paying all credit card debt, buying everyone in the world an iPod, building 75 million solar-powered homes, and 39 other revealing pipe dreams.

Shocking, thought-provoking, and incredibly entertaining, Simpson takes a hard look at the government's top priorities--both what they are and what they should be.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When the cost of the war in Iraq reached $1 trillion, the figure was so numbing that the news caused little reaction except to rile Simpson, a music critic and radio announcer. He figured that if Americans understood that for $1 trillion, for example, the highways and streets of our cities could have been paved in gold, they would be more outraged about the war. Simpson catalogs 50 ways the money could have been spent: reducing the national debt, bolstering Medicare, investing in solar power, improving veterans’ benefits, raising pay for teachers and police. With $1 trillion, we could send every high-school student in the U.S. to a four-year college tuition free. On the more humorous side, the money could buy iPods for everyone on the planet or finance the mother of all lotteries with a grand prize worth $1 billion, with 1,000 second prizes of $1 million each. A sobering and sometimes amusing look at the cost of the war in Iraq. --Vanessa Bush

About the Author

Rob Simpson has been a music critic, a radio announcer, and a voiceover actor, but most of his working life has been spent as a political junkie, a smart-ass, and a creative director in the advertising industry. Mr. Simpson currently makes his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. He's been in love with his wife for thirty years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 110 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401323081
• ISBN-13: 978-1401323080
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,936,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great and funny eye opener., July 7, 2008

By 

Lblack (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq (Paperback)

Ok, so this book was quite an eye opener and had hilarious moments when it came to suggesting ways we could have used the money we have spent fighting in Iraq. I loved every minute of it. It is a quick read or one that you can come back to in bites. The author has quite an easy and ironic tone of voice throughout. It was fun without being preachy, and its true call to action for every American to hold their government accountable will hopefully get us all to act.

It was funny and sad all at the same time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND A TRILLION $ WAY BETTER, December 2, 2008

By 

Rand Stevenson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq (Paperback)

I ordered 3 copies and gave them to my friends. A cute book, and it definitely makes a point - well actually 50 points on how a trillion dollars might have been otherwise spent, rather than on the war in Iraq.

The author offer 2 to 3 pages on each area he selected as perhaps being somewhat more appropriate uses of a trillion dollars of taxpayer's money. It's the kind of book you can keep on the coffee table or back of the John, and thoroughly enjoy it 5 minutes at a time. You don't have to start at the beginning and read to the end, but rather you can open it anywhere and enjoy a few pages every time you pick it up. A good source of facts, and definitely fodder to start an interesting conversation with.

Not an overly politcal book, but just one that poses the questions of what might have been done with that amount of money. Something to think about.

5.0 out of 5 stars It makes me cry., February 16, 2010

By 

Stinkypoot (Jacksonville, FL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq (Paperback)

There's nothing I didn't really know in this book. We all know it. We know a trillion is a very big number. But this book does a very good job of making clear how much that could have bought us in worthwhile pursuits and anyone can see how little it has bought us in Iraq. The result is a tragedy of Greek proportions. If you ever thought Bush might be America's Nero, this book will leave you with no doubt.