The world's problems are so staggering that they sometimes feel completely unchangeable. Every day seems to leave more suffering, disease and tragedy in its wake. There's no question that our problems are vast, but what would it really cost to solve some of greatest human tragedies we face? Here are some stats that put the world's problems in perspective: 1. For $26 billion more a year, we could provide a basic education to every child in the world by 2015. That's according to a UNESCO study published in Sept. 2013. That might seem like a lot, but let's consider that... The U.S. drops an annual $25 billion on golf. 2. For $990, a farmer can get training in dairy production and four milk-producing animals. A Heifer International Cheeses of the World" basket provides a goat, a sheep, a water buffalo and a heifer so that a family living in poverty can produce and sell dairy products. That certainly isn't chump-change, but in the U.S... Families spend an average of $1,139 on [a] prom. 3. For $190 billion a year, we could cut the number of people without access to clean water and basic sanitation facilities in half. In 2012, the World Health Organization predicted that its Millennium Development Goal of providing access to clean water and basic sanitation for half of those who currently lack it would require a $190 billion annual investment for five years. At the time of the report, 783 million people had subpar drinking water, and 2.5 billion people lacked access to proper sanitation facilities. Meanwhile, the U.S. loses $190 billion in annual federal and state revenue due to offshore tax dodges.
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Each summary is created using a consistent editorial procedure. The target length is approximately 16 lines of 11-point Arial text in a 650-pixel-wide column. Up to 25% of a summary may be set in bold to emphasize the most important ideas. Summaries are composed of verbatim excerpts presented in the same sequence as they appear in the original news source, with very minor editorial additions. Where material has been omitted between excerpts, the omission is indicated with ellipses (...). Any words added by an editor for clarity or context appear in [brackets]. Our original news editor was Fred Burks. Tod Fletcher edited most summaries from 2007 through 2014, and Mark Bailey has served as news editor since 2014.