Awareness Activities
Make the U.S Budget Visible
|
This budget activity is an impressive way to visually demonstrate how much more the United States could be doing to help hungry and poor people around the world. |
With a simple adding machine tape, you can help your group understand exactly how much the United States devotes to ending poverty around the world. This idea comes from longtime Bread for the World member Cathy Brechtelsbauer of South Dakota.
Age Appropriateness: Adults and youth.
Materials Needed: Adding machine tape, ruler, markers
Preparation
Cut a 25-foot strip of adding machine tape. Measure 1 1/8 inches and color in from the end of the tape. Then measure an additional 1 1/8 inches and color that section in a contrasting hue. Finally, draw a line at the 1.25-foot mark and another line at the 5-foot mark but do not color in the space to the end of the tape. Wind up the measuring tape with the colored section in the center.
Presentation
Show your group the adding machine tape and tell them you are holding the complete federal budget in your hand. Ask them what percentage of the budget they think is spent on foreign aid. Many Americans think that the United States spends 10-20 percent of our budget on foreign aid. Then ask what percentage they think the United States should spend. Again, many Americans think the United States should spend about 5 percent. Now tell them you will show them what we do spend on foreign aid.
Have someone assist you by taking one end of the tape and slowly walking across the room. When the 5-foot mark is visible, remind them that's what many Americans think we spend and at the 1.25 foot mark, what they think we should spend. As the colored-in section finally emerges at the end, let them know this is how much we do spend on all foreign aid, including military assistance, money for embassies and political aid. The very end section is the part of our foreign aid spent on poverty-focused development–education, clean water, agriculture, health, road building. This amounts to one-half of 1 percent of the whole federal budget.
Let them know that if we are to get on track to meet the promises we have made for the Millennium Development Goals, we need at least an additional $5 billion this year—just over half an inch of your tape. Surely, out of this 25-foot budget, we can find the resources to increase our spending by this much.
