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Oct 2nd 2013, 15:53, by MTV Act

By Shelley Tibbetts

The government shutdown on Monday evening, after it failed to pass a new spending budget. Speaking of budgets, let's discuss what we could do with the $1 billion dollars a week the shutdown is going to cost the economy.

Effects of the event have been immediately widespread since Tuesday morning. Still wondering what exactly the government shutdown all means? We're with you. After all, it's the first time one has happened in 17 years! In a nutshell, 800,000 federal employees won't be receiving their paychecks, many government run services are closed (including national monuments, parks and zoos), and even government run social media feeds fell silent.

Meanwhile, debt will rack up into the multi-billions (according to estimates it's going to cost the economy roughly $1 billion dollars a week). Yikes. We know that kinda cash can most definitely change the world, so we decided figure out how far $1 billion a week could go.

+ $625,000 to World Wildlife Fund = 25,000 endangered polar bears "adopted" (the maximum number estimated to be left in the wild)

+ $12.5 million to Together We Rise = 500,000 Sweet Cases (covers the average number of children in foster care who will move to multiple homes.)

+ $300 million to The Feed Foundation = feeds 6 million children in school for an entire year.

+ $425 million to Girl Up = provides full support to 5 million girls for a year.

+ $49.5 million to VH1 Save The Music = covers the cost of all the instruments that the foundation has given away since 1997.

+$26.4 million to Malaria No More = buys tests and treatments for 26.4 million people (FYI malaria claims 660,000 lives per year, so these supplies would last for four decades.)

+ $150 million to The Nature Conservancy Carbon Offset Program =  offsets 10 million metric tons of carbon.

+ $5.56 million to The Thirst Project = funds to build 200 water wells each for both Kenya and Uganda.

+ $500,000 to Fuck Cancer = funds a little over 10 years worth of educational media campaigns.

+29,915,000 to Heifer International = transforms the lives of 1,000 women & their families, empowers 300 women in Nepal and gifts 415 villages with a stove.

#DearCongress, c'mon what are you waiting for? Settle on a compromise ASAP. Each dollar that's saved could make a big difference in the world.

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