$23

Apparently, in Palestine, this is the value of a human life.

A 16 year old kid was told his parents would receive $23 if he wore a belt of explosives onto a bus and blew himself up. Luckily, this kid had a change of heart and turned himself in to Israeli authorities before following through on this act.

How desperate do you need to be to end your life in return for $23 dollars? What did you last spend $23 on?

This event goes along way towards proving my point that economic desperation is the source of 99% of all the problems in the world. If that kid had hope that he had another source for those $23, he wouldn't have done that. Kids in inner city America wouldn't steal and kill one another if they had a viable economic future.

During the late 90's, as we were experiencing a perhaps false economic boom, crime rates hit all-time lows. As our economy has soured in the intervening years, the crime rate has increased. In places like Sao Paolo, Brazil crime rates are astronomical, with the rich living in fortified compounds and shop owners employing armed guards to prevent theft. People with little hope of economic improvement see no other option.

50% of the world's population exists on less than $2 per day. That's 3 billion people earning $6 billion dollars/day. That's $730 per year.

You can argue that the cost of living is less in most of the rest of the world, and you would be right, but $2 doesn't buy most of these people access to clean drinking water, sanitation, or an education. They are 300 years behind in their standard of living.

If instead of spending $150 Billion dollars 'rebuilding' Iraq, we spent that money (and encouraged the rest of the world) improving the living conditions of people in places that are 'breeding grounds' for terrorists we might do far more good than imposing democracy on portions of the world with 2000 years of development in that direction. Third world debt relief would go along way towards helping this situation as well.

Spend that $23 wisely.