So, this wall. Apparently it’s going to be great. Apparently it’s going to be huge. Apparently it’s going to be really expensive, and unsurprisingly, Mexico is not going to be paying for it. “Who is, then?” you ask? The American people of course! Through the taxation of goods that Americans buy and use daily, the citizens of the United States are footing the bill. The 8 to 12 billion dollar bill.
That’s quite a bit of money. Let’s just assume that it’s going to cost the maximum estimate. Do you know what we could do with that money? Here are 12 things you can do with 12 billion dollars.
1. 3 private jets.
No need to worry about a wall when you can just fly right over it. You can keep one in D.C., one in New York City, and one in Florida for when you go on vacation almost immediately following the inauguration.
2. 60,000 Lamborghini Gallardos.
America should definitely come first, unless your talking about cars. When it comes to vehicles, the immigrants are always welcome. With all of this money, you can have a whole army of Lambo’s ready to go at anytime.
3. 13 trips to the moon and back.
If things are looking a little bleak on this planet (politically, environmentally, and otherwise), you can take 13 separate trips to the moon and back - except you may not want to come back to Earth when you realize there is no access to Donald Trump’s Twitter or Fox News on the moon.
4. A year’s worth of groceries for over 3.3 million families.
Do you know what middle America - and all Americans - care about? Feeding their families. Millions of families could have food on the table for an entire year if the money was put into meat and potatoes instead of bricks and mortar.
5. A year’s worth of gas for 5.7 million families.
While the damaging effects of burning fossil fuels are still up for debate (this is absolutely not up for debate; they’re really bad), most of us use gas each and every day. Imagine having your tank full for an entire year courtesy of the federal government.
6. 63,526 single-family homes.
We hear about homelessness all the time, from both sides of the aisle. What would over 60,000 completely paid-off houses would do to the rate of homelessness in our country.
7. 24,000 acres of solar panels.
Oh, hey, look! A solution to some of our dependence on oil and our environmental problems. The amount of money it takes to build the wall could create a solar farm almost 10 times bigger than the largest current solar farm. Talk about a bright idea.
8. End world hunger for literally half of the planet’s population.
I don’t have any jokes or sarcastic remarks for this point. Simply, this would impact, and possibly save, of the lives of people all over the world. You can’t tell me that’s not more important than a wall.
9. Clean up the 2010 BP oil spill, ten times over.
Remember how bad that oil spill was, and how long it took to clean up? The price tag was pretty hefty, too, but is dwarfed in comparison to the price tag of Trump’s border blockade.
10. Clean water for 600,000,000 people in impoverished countries.
We’re not just talking about Flint, Michigan here. We’re talking about clean water for people in places that have never had access to clean drinking water before.
11. Free community college for 10 years, nationwide.
Free college is ridiculous and too expensive? It wouldn’t cost a thing for an entire decade if the money from the wall was allocated to community college costs.
12. 1 full year of veteran healthcare, completely covered.
Trump and many in his party spend a lot of time talking about helping United States Veterans. How about putting their money where their mouth is and putting this money to significantly better use than a wall.
12 billion dollars is a lot of money that can do a lot of good. It can also do a lot of harm. Americans are going to foot the bill for this wall; that has been decided. And if you support its construction, fine, but I don't ever want to hear you complain about welfare, taxes, or public assistance ever again.
