Open the newspaper to the politics section on any given day, and you’re likely to find something about budget cuts. The United States budget is a controversial topic, so much so that it caused the government to shut down completely just months ago.
Politicians and commentators alike love to point out places of wasted spending, showing that their ideas and discoveries could save millions of dollars. Often, the proposed spending cuts would mean that somewhere, a program or person would be affected, losing some of their resources in the spirit of stewardship.
And so it became quite the story when a fourteen-year-old discovered a simple, tiny, overlooked idea that could save the US government $136 million per year, while negatively impacting almost no one.
What did he discover? By changing the font used on government documents, 30% less ink and paper would be used. Goodbye, Times New Roman. Hello, Garamond. Because our government spends approximately $1.8 billion per year on printing, that savings could be massive.
The savvy Biz Kid approached the Government Printing Office, where he was praised for his discovery, but the jury is still out on whether or not the idea will be adopted.
Regardless, there’s a valuable lesson here, Biz Kid: sometimes, the biggest, most discussed problems just need a fresh pair of eyes. And sometimes, it doesn’t hurt when those eyes belong to a kid.
So tell us, Biz Kid, what ideas do you have that could impact the world? We’re listening.
Check out the CNN interview with 14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani here.