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May 8th 2008

John Cusack Wants You To Go On A $3 Trillion Shopping Spree

Filed under: campaigns, film-tv, movies — michael @ 9:33 pm

Imagine spending $3 trillion dollars. No, really. Don’t think it’s possible? Ask George Bush. $3 trillion is the projected cost of the Iraq War according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes. This coming May 23rd, John Cusack puts this ridiculous sum into play with the new satirical live-action cartoon, War, Inc. Cusack directs and stars in the film — along with Hillary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Dan Aykroyd, and Ben Kingsley.

But here’s the thing — you’re probably still not grasping (I didn’t either) the full extent to what $3 trillion would mean to this country. That’s why Cusack is pushing everyone to visit this new site he discovered called 3Trillion.org. From his blog,

“THAT WAS FUN.  Just got done spending $3 trillion.  Try it yourself – it’s a lot harder
than you might think.  Honestly, it would have been a whole lot easier just to follow the President’s example and blow it all on one illegal occupation of Iraq. That’s a whole lot of zeroes, but what does it really amount to?  How many homes would it buy for Americans who’ve fallen victim to the subprime meltdown?  How many debts would it pay off for developing nations?  As it turns out, one whole hell of a lot of all of those things combined.”

So what did I buy with my $3 trillion? Well, I switched the nation over to solar energy, provided universal healthcare for all Americans, ended world hunger completely for one year, initiated sustainable agriculture worldwide, gave food and vet-care to low-income pet owners, and provided broadband Internet to every home in America. That, and I’m still only at $1.6 trillion. Wow.

What would you buy?

Thanks for the tip, Sarah!