$1 billion is almost the same amount of money spent by the government on education last year.
It would take 19,601 average person’s full year’s salary to equal out to what consumers spent in three days.
The executives at Rockstar are certainly benefitting from the big numbers, but does anyone else benefit?
With the average salary in the U.S. declining and the poverty level rising, where are we getting the money to buy a billion dollars worth of video games?
With the last Call of Duty installment, Black Ops 2, raking in a billion dollars in 15 days, we have to start to wonder why the poverty levels are so low, yet the entertainment sales are so high.
Every U.S. citizen is, or should feel, obligated to help their fellow man. If we could take those billions of dollars spent on video games per year and put it toward feeding the hungry and saving the environment, maybe we can start to pave a mature, followable path for the generations ahead.
While we are at it, we could take those hours spent gaming and turn them into volunteer hours.
As a planet, we spend roughly 3 billion hours a week playing video games. The wasted time, energy and electricity is enough to power the world for years on end.
Roughly 706 billion people in just South Asia alone live without electricity; imagine how much those billions of dollars a year could help.
The U.S. has never been a change-overnight nation, but we need to start thinking about what is best for our fellow primates.
Right now, in the U.S. alone there are roughly 16 million children who live in a household that cannot provide nutritious food on a regular basis.
We could feed every hungry child for a week on what we spent in just three days.
I can only start to wonder about what people are giving up to play this video game, which runs about $60.
Are they sacrificing food for their children or their significant other? Are they giving up gas for a week? Maybe they are taking it out of their budget for housing.
No matter where it comes from, U.S. priorities are far from where they need to be. Education and health are the two most important things, not just for the U.S., but for the world.
Every year education is on the back-burner and entertainment is in the spotlight.
I plead for you to ask yourself what is more important: Playing these video games, or feeding starving children?
Once you can honestly answer this question, I hope you can reach the same conclusion that I have and realize that something has to be done.
We have to put our best foot forward and help the people who can’t help themselves.
It isn’t just the teenagers who play this game’s fault; it has a lot to do with the parenting.
If we aren’t raising our children to care about the poverty stricken, to walk in someone else’s shoes and have a desire to help, then we are all doing something wrong.
If we decide that buying our children these games is more important than them going outside and socializing, then we are all doing something wrong.
So the next time you hear someone complain that their actions don’t make a difference, remind them of the billions of dollars spent, in just a couple of days, on video games – that do nothing for those starving children all around the world.
