Twice in late summer 2019 the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons organized and staffed information booths at public events (Olympia’s Harbor Days from Fri. Aug. 30 to Sun. Sept. 1, and Olympia’s International Peace Day event on Sat. Sept. 21).
I labeled six jars with different possible uses for our federal budget. Our volunteers handed each visitor to our booth a stack of ten pennies and invited them to put the pennies into the various jars to show how the visitor would choose to spend the federal budget. The results (listed below) were similar for both events, except “Environment and climate” and “Health care” exchanged places for 1st and 2nd priorities. Military has rated lowest priority among public participants every time I have conducted this game over the decades, even though Congress gives military spending highest priority and the most money every year.
During Olympia’s Harbor Days (Fri. Aug. 30 to Sun. Sept. 1) people deposited the following numbers of pennies in the six jars:
421 Environment and climate
347 Health care
329 End poverty
289 Education and young people
93 Other governmental functions
86 Military and wars
During Olympia’s International Peace Day event (Sat. Sept. 21) people deposited the following numbers of pennies in the six jars:
158 Health care
144 Environment and climate
122 End poverty
100 Education and young people
30 Other governmental functions
15 Military and wars
After people played the game we offered printed materials about the federal budget.