Give till it hurts—or you run out of potato chips?-Tsunami related stats

Stat house
February 2005

Give till it hurts—or you run out of potato chips?
Tsunami related stats from Worldwatch:

Official U.S. aid pledged for tsunami relief as of December 2004 — $35 million

Official U.S. aid pledged as of January 2005 — $350 million

Estimated funds (mostly private) budgeted for Bush inauguration — $30–50 million

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Japan official tsunami aid pledge — $500 million

Sweden official tsunami aid pledge — $75 million

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Sweden tsunami aid pledge per capita — $8.33

Japan aid pledge per capita — $3.93

U.S. aid pledge per capita — $1.19

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Sweden total foreign aid, 2003 — $2.1 billion

As share of GDP — 0.7 percent

Japan total foreign aid, 2003 — $8.9 billion

As share of GDP — 0.2 percent

U.S. total foreign aid, 2003 — $15.8 billion

As share of GDP — 0.14 percent

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U.S. estimated sales of Botox (to eliminate facial wrinkles), 2003 — $540 million

U.S. spending on all cosmetic procedures, 2002 — $7.7 billion

U.S. sales of pet food and supplies, 2003 — $18.9 billion

U.S. sales of Prozac-type antidepressants, antipsychotics, and

sexual dysfunction drugs (e.g., Viagra), 2003 — $20.3 billion

U.S. spending on potato chips and other salty snacks, 2002 — $22 billion

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Sources: U.S., Japanese, and Swedish tsunami aid pledges: various news sources. Estimated Bush inaugural spending: CNN.com. Per-capita aid pledges: calculated with population data from CIA World Factbook and U.S. Bureau of the Census. Foreign aid totals and GDP shares: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Spending data: www.emptytomb.org/ lifestylestat.php, except drug sales from www.imshealth.com and pet food/supplies data from www.mindbranch.com.

In response to the suffering in the aftermath of the South Asia earthquake and tsunami, please give generously to the global relief or development agency of your choice or consider giving to one of the groups listed below:

Catholic Medical Mission Board
Catholic Relief Services
Concern
American Red Cross International Response Fund
AmeriCares South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund
Médecins Sans Frontières International Tsunami Emergency Appeal
Oxfam Asian Earthquake & Tsunami Fund
Sarvodaya Relief Fund for Tsunami Tragedy
UNICEF South Asia Tsunami Relief Effort

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