U.S expenditure on refugees.
It's not entirely clear how much the U.S. spends on refugee resettlement and support, but the Federation for American Immigration Reform says $1.8 billion per year. They're critical of American immigration policy, so if anything they're overstating the amount, so I'm going with that so it's clear I'm not cherry picking a low number.
$1.8 billion a year. Let's put that in perspective.
- It's about $7.50 per American.
- It's 24% as much as American spend on potato chips ($7.5 billion/year).
- It's 6% of American spending on pet food (nearly $30 billion/year).
- It's 3/10th of 1% of our military budget, or about what we spend on the military in ~28 hours.
- It's about the combine cost of Dallas Cowboys' stadium and Detroit's Little Ceasar's Arena.
- It's slightly less than the cost of San Francisco's Transbay Terminal.
And what do we get for this money? Not fatter Americans, not well-fed pets, not relentless drone bombing of civilian populations, not taxpayer-subsidised sports facilities, and not an overpriced transit facility for a single city.
We get better lives for desperate people coming from countries where their lives are at great risk.
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