Wednesday, March 29th –
Union Square Park, below 14th Street steps –
Once again the Penny Poll attracted lots of interested people, New Yorkers and visitors, old and young.
With a bloated U.S. military budget and Tax Day approaching many people are concerned about the unmet needs of our communities. The chart shows how the people taking the Penny Poll think their hard-earned tax dollars should be spent.
The National Priorities Project has more information about how our tax dollars are spent:
For Military in 2021, taxpayers in New York, New York paid $29.3 billion. Here’s what those tax dollars could have paid for instead:
276,472 Registered Nurses for 1 Year, or
2.77 million Public Housing Units for 1 Year, or
670,799 Jobs That Pay $15 Per Hour with Benefits for 1 Year, or
732.51 million Coronavirus Vaccines for 1 Year, or
8.62 billion N95 Respirator Masks for 1 Year, or
248,032 Elementary School Teachers for 1 Year, or
169,942 Clean Energy Jobs Created for 1 Year, or
598,649 Head Start Slots for Children for 4 Years, or
1.79 million Military Veterans Receiving VA Medical Care for 1 Year, or
865,156 Scholarships for University Students for 4 Years, or
11.8 million Children Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for 1 Year, or
109.91 million Households with Wind Power for 1 Year, or
5.15 million Adults Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for 1 Year, or
123.83 million Households with Solar Electricity for 1 Year
We’ll be back later this spring to continue this discussion and look for ways to move the money from the inflated military budget to human needs.
Phyllis, Nancy, Nydia, Linda, Edith, Chenda and Eva-Lee
Number crunching and chart: Edith Cresmer
Photos: Linda Novenski, Hideko Otake, Eva-Lee Baird
Granny Peace Brigade 
What a wonderful project! How does the pie chart compare with actual expenditures by the Federal government? Were those polled given that information? Where does the survey information go? Interesting to see where $29.3 billion of NY taxpayers money that went for military in 2021 could have gone for greater good! GREAT JOB – it must have been fund to have participated, instead of filling our a survey form.
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