Scary spending
- 21 Oct 06, 12:00 PM
A figure I came across tonight suddenly put American spending on elections into a frightening context. We Brits tend to think US politicians raise and spend a scarily absurd amount to get themselves elected. In an earlier blog I mentioned the total had reached more than $1bn for both Republicans and Democrats combined on these
mid-terms. A lot to obtain a satisfactory result on 7 November. Well perhaps not.
Guess how much Americans will spend exactly a week earlier on an equally horrible occasion populated by some equally scary characters. Yes you guessed it - I'm talking about Halloween. Well, according to the , Americans will spend more than $4.95bn - yes billion - on costumes, candy, cards and decorations -that's five times more than they spend on democracy. Now that really is scary!
James Westhead is a Washington correspondent for 大象传媒 News.
