I have been thinking for a while about how to write this post – supporting the work that Peace Corps does in a way that is not annoying or boring.
Anyways, I’m pushed to do it today for 2 reasons: (1) this year is the 50th anniversary of the founding of Peace Corps and (2) the first Director of the Peace Corps, Sargent Shriver, passed away today (obit here).
So I’ll try to keep this quick and painless. I find a lot of misunderstanding about Americans here. Sometimes I think people watch too many movies. But I bet that each of the 8,655 current Volunteers comes into contact with at least 1,000 people over their 2 year service. Maybe not in a life-changing way, but at least so that they can say they have seen and maybe even said hello to an American and they aren’t that bad.
So every 2 years that is 8.6 million people touched in developing countries – areas of the world that are increasingly dangerous to American interests.
The Peace Corps budget is about $400 million, or $46,000 per Volunteer.
In comparison, the Department of Defense budget (haha, yes, I went there) is $650 billion, or $433,333 per soldier in active duty. Roughly 10x the cost per person.
Not that I think we shouldn’t have military spending. Its just that comparatively Peace Corps is really cheap PR.
I’m really with you in your comparison of the Peace Corp budget to our per person military spending. Seemingly war is more valuable-and worth more money than peace. In the words
of an old Vietnam era song “When will they ever learn”? Gram