The Challenge
Most people have heard about the Buffett and Gates challenge to the very wealthy to donate half their wealth to charity. Sounds great, but in the end not particularly effective. What if the challenge instead went to the governments of the world: dedicate half of your military budgets to development instead of destruction?
There is always money to go to war — to build bombs, tanks, bombers, bullets. What if the same effort went to tractors, water pumps, rail and locomotives, bulldozers, cement plants? The same people are at work, the same businessmen get rich, the same bureaucrats stay busy. Everybody wins.
Imagine loading a super-cargo ship with John Deere tractors, Caterpillar dozers, water pumps, turbines, and trucks, and delivering it with an army of engineers and teachers to a place that needs it. We would spend half the military cost and be welcomed with open arms. Build up the infrastructure, make them self-sufficient, teach them to fish, then leave. It seems too simple — but I challenge anyone to find a flaw.
