What is wrong with our values? I really question the things we spend our money on.

The cost of a single Air Force F-22 Raptor is $187.3 million. By comparison, here is the cost of a few common items and services.

Single family house: July 2010 $235,300

State-of-the-art high school: $75 million

Virginia Mason Hospital addition, Seattle: $141 million

A private four-year college costs an average of $26,273 annually for tuition and
fees.

The Air Force has planned to build 368 aircraft over the next 10 years for a total cost of $69 billion. That is staggering, and it is just one Department of Defense program! To put things into perspective, let’s look at what other things that kind of money will by these days;

• 292,929 houses could be bought for the cost of the F-22 program.

• 918 state-of-the-art high schools.

• 488 modern hospitals.

• 655,867 four-year private college degrees, 65,587 graduates per year from schools like Harvard and Stanford.

What do you think is a better value for Americans today?

About 25,000 people are directly employed in building the F-22; they could be moved into building high-speed trains or high-tech electric cars. This is much more useful for the economy and the long-term benefits of dollar cost values.