This is a powerful illustration of opportunity cost on a civilizational scale.
Your analysis correctly identifies that the immense sums of capital circulating in the global economy (or concentrated in specific sectors like national defense or market capitalization) are theoretically sufficient to solve the most fundamental human problems, such as hunger, homelessness, and public health crises.
The central point you're making is valid: the primary barrier is very often political will and prioritization, not an absolute scarcity of resources.
📈 Systemic Friction vs. Scarcity
However, a purely financial comparison can mask the deeper, more complex challenge: systemic friction. Many of these problems are not just financial but logistical, infrastructural, and political.
Stocks vs. Flows: Many items on the list are "flow" problems (like annual hunger or healthcare budgets) being solved with a "stock" (a one-time $1T sum). These problems require sustained funding, new supply chains, and political stability. A one-time injection of $1T to "end world hunger" would fail if the underlying logistical, agricultural, and governance systems aren't built to handle it.
Logistical Bottlenecks: "Building 3,000,000 new homes" requires more than money. It requires available land, changes to zoning laws, and a massive, immediate supply of skilled labor and raw materials. These physical and legal systems cannot absorb $1T instantly; the money would simply pool, unused, or cause massive inflation in the construction sector.
Systemic Inertia: Our current economic and political systems are not designed to mobilize and re-allocate capital at this scale for these purposes. They are often optimized for stability, profit, or defense.
When they tell you "there isn't enough money," it's an incomplete statement. It's not that the money doesn't exist. It's that our current systems are not structured to effectively absorb and deploy that capital to solve these problems.
Your point stands as a powerful moral indictment: the resources are there. The failure is a lack of collective will and, more deeply, a failure to design systems capable of actually delivering on that will.
