Nonfiction

Two Comparisons

Comparing some budgets and some books.

Jack T. Crawford

16 Jan 2026 — 3 min read

It's almost impressive how the world keeps getting worse, isn't it? The news, as of late, is exceptionally depressing. I know I, at least, have a hard time finding a healthy balance between staying well-informed and avoiding depression at the state of things. The maintenance of a healthy perspective is an evergreen challenge.

To that end I have two comparisons to share today. One's about the state of the world, the other is petty and small.

Investing in Hate vs. Hope

This morning, I wondered what the difference was between what the US government is spending on ICE now and what they spent to put a man on the moon. Thankfully, there's a lot of data for this, and I'll cite sources. Here's a breakdown comparing the annual budget increases for immigration enforcement from September 2025 to the total cost of the Apollo missions from 1960 to 1973 (adjusted for inflation).

An important caveat on this data: this immigration budget is an increase to the annual budget for ICE, while the Apollo budget covers the entire 13 year run of that program, so comparing the two side by side is a bit misleading.

This year, America is spending two-thirds of what it cost to place 24 astronauts on the Moon over a baker's dozen years. The new detention centers and border walls cost roughly the same amount as ALL of those spaceships, give or take a billion.

I've also included USAID's total budget from a couple of years before that agency was gutted, for additional perspective. That $63B went a long, long way.

"The effect of these cuts on people is dire: At least 23 million children stand to lose access to education, and as many as 95 million people would lose access to basic healthcare, potentially leading to more than 3 million preventable deaths per year" (Oxfam America).

Hate seems far more expensive than hope, doesn't it?

Now for a petty comparison

These two books sit together on my shelf and they mock me with their similarity like Statler and Waldorf. They're both from imprints of Penguin Random House, they're both books about biology (more or less) and they're FREAKIN' IDENTICAL.

The comparison really bothers me. Both are by guys named Jonathan. They use the same font. They use the same basic cover and spine layout (Title, subtitle, author name) over incredibly similar artworks.

Would it be better or worse if they had the same cover artist? Better, I think because they DON'T! Improbable Destinies' jacket was designed by Ben Denzer, while Pathogenesis' was designed by Yang Kim.

Destinies was published in 2017, while Pathogenesis came out in 2023. Yang Kim, you have some explaining to do!

I just had to get that off my chest.

It's cold out there this January. Remember to be kind. A little warmth goes a long way.