The world revolves around money. Sad truth. But real. The world used to be about culture and expression but greed has appeared to have gotten the best of everyone. Now countries go back and forth between flourishing and just scraping by because of some bad economic decisions. This has worsened the amount of people in deep poverty and made the cost of living unbearable. With the growing conflicts around the globe, everyone seems to be needing more and more aid. And where is everyone turning to when they need help? The United States.
The federal budget is the spending and revenues of the United States. According to the US Treasury Fiscal Data, the US has spent $2.12 trillion dollars in the 2024 fiscal year for their citizens. The federal budget covers a multitude of things such as; social security, transportation, education, national defense, etc. The country spends billions of dollars to help better themselves and their reputation.
In the 248 years that the United States has been an independent country, its strength and resources rival few. Over the years, the US has gathered allies and proved itself a formidable world power. The US’s aid to other countries has solidified friendships but at what cost? In 2022, the US foreign aid obligations ran the country dry of $70.4 billion dollars. Ukraine got over $12 billion dollars, Israel received over $3 billion dollars, and Ethiopia received over $2 billion dollars. Overall, it’s a decent amount of money. But compared to its annual budget of $2.12 trillion dollars this year, $70.4 billion is only about 3.34% of what the United States spends in a fiscal year.
Even though the United States appears to be using their budget wisely. Could they be doing more?
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, states that poverty isn’t an impossible puzzle to solve. With educating the impoverished population, housing them and feeding them, along with other necessities such as healthcare, it would take approximately $175 billion dollars each year for the next 20 to end global poverty.
To put it into perspective, the United States annual budget is $2.12 trillion dollars. The US alone could finance 12 of those 20 years. That money would go into better public education, shelters, food banks, and free clinics. In 2022, the Supplemental Poverty Measure estimated around 37.9 million people in the US to be in poverty. And even then, the poverty line is absurdly low. So even if someone isn’t considered to be impoverished, they could still be struggling.
In 2024, the US federal poverty level for a family of 1 was $15,060. Meaning that each month that person takes home $1,255. Plus the 8.7% tax
