The Tomb of the Unknown Democracy
"Hello world. I'm new here", seen on a newborn T shirt.
That's how I felt reading about Google's monthly rent of $920 million being paid to SpaceX for computing power. That's over 11 billion dollars annually.
I have trouble wrapping my head around that amount of money. Imagine if Google, or Musk, were to pledge one month of that sum every year to feed the homeless, rescue Social Security, plant trees to heal the planet, improve Medicare.
Let's look closer at 1 billion:
If you stacked 1 billion $1 bills, it would reach over 67,000 miles high - nearly a third of the way to the moon.
1 billion seconds is roughly 31.7 years
If you had 1 billion dollars and spent 1 thousand every day, it would last 2,740 years.
There are more than 1 billion websites online.
There are about 1 billion ants for every human being on earth. (1)
It doesn't take courage for a huge tech company to spend that much - after all, giant ego's thrive in a blood-thirsty environment. Winning swamps all else.
Something about that viewpoint bothers me. I can give an attitude some latitude. But baditude? Boils my coils, Dude. (2)
If this is the best we can do, I suggest we go to Arlington National Cemetery and construct the Tomb of the Unknown Democracy. The inscription will read, "Killed by Corruption. Slaughtered by Greed."
What takes courage is to peek around the walls of power and consider other people.
What takes true courage is to leap off the greed machine for a minute or two and try a bit of kindness.
Wouldn't that make the word "ManKind" truly exceptional?
c. Corinne Whitaker 2026 and always
(1) Facts from workybooks.com
(2) "Bully Bully Bang Bang", Corinne Whitaker, 2020
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copyright 2026 Corinne Whitaker
