Does anyone know what the $ cost of the war is per American?

[DuaneBidoux]

I want it presented in a straightforward manner but haven't found a site that does this.

[proud patriot]

1. Yes

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

[KamaAina]

2. $1,721 per person

and counting. :(

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Total Cost Is About $3 Trillion So Far

Including future costs of taking care of the wounded, etc.

300 million people in the US.

That makes about $10,000 per person.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Yours is probably the most realistic estimate

Considering the FUTURE costs of the war and it's consequences.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Someone At Harvard Did A Study A Year And A Half Ago

Found it was $2 trillion then - a very detailed analysis. I figure another trillion in the extra year amd a half.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Not unreasonable

Given the administration's "predicted" cost and the actual cost.

[deutsey]

5. I think that was discussed on this program

http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=25464

Stiglitz on the Iraq Occupation

Nobel laureate and former chief economist for the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, talks about the costs of the invasion of Iraq and the gloomy prospects for the US economy with journalist Doug Henwood.

[L. Coyote]

6. About $10,000 so far plus the interest compounding regularly for decades perhaps

Kinda like how Clinton paid off the Vietnam War in the 1990s, after recovering the economy from that war.

[Fumesucker]

7. What's even more interesting and revealing..

Is to calculate the expenditure per Iraqi.

3,000,000,000,000/26,000,000= $115,384

Let's count the cost per Iraqi killed, assuming they were all "bad guys".

3,000,000,000,000/1,000,000= $3,000,000

Assume only half the dead Iraqis were "bad guys" and the cost comes to.

$6,000,000 per "bad guy" killed.


Pretty expensive game of "whack a muj", eh?

[Canuckistanian]

10. Post those numbers

Seriously.

Make a post showing the total cost of the war so far and the numbers of dead Iraqis that those dollars bought.

And show your sources with links.

I'd K&R it.

[coriolis]

11. His figures use the population of Iraq and the $3T estimate...

everything after that is arithmetic. :D

[Fumesucker]

13. Be my guest..

The three trillion dollar number comes from here:

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/29/exclusive_the_three_trillion_dollar_war

Population of Iraq:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html

Number of dead could be anything from 30,000 to 1,000,000 depending on whose numbers you use.

Here is one source that said 650,000 in 2006:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442.html

[Canuckistanian]

15. OK, done

I've re-jigged the numbers, but the message is the same.

[undeterred]

12. I heard $100/month

or $3/day. Add that up over 5 years with interest. Now do it for a household.

[Juche]

14. There are also long term losses

Robert Reich wrote a blog about how spending in Iraq leads to less spending on investments in the US, which will not show up for a while in the economy.

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2008/04/economic-costs-of-endless-war.html

"With the US economy falling into recession, we have even more unused capacity. That’s not in itself a reason for continuing to spend billions of dollars for the Iraqi War, of course. The war is a terribly inefficient stimulus to the US economy. A dollar spent on repairing a bridge in Iraq doesn’t have nearly the multiplier effect on our economy as a dollar spent repairing a bridge here in the United States.

More to the point – and here’s what Americans need to understand – a dollar spent in Iraq is a dollar we do not have to spend here, not only repairing our own bridges, roads, and water and sewage systems, but also giving Americans access to health insurance and children access to good schools, fully funding Social Security and Medicare, investing adequately in non-carbon based energy sources and green technologies, and borrowing less from abroad.

In other words, the real economic cost of the Iraqi War doesn’t show up in the business cycle, and it's not responsible for the current recession. The real economic cost will show up years from now in a standard of living that for most Americans will be significantly lower than we might otherwise have enjoyed."



universal broadband for example can grow the economy by $500 billion/year. Putting $30 billion/year into alternative energy can grow the economy by 1.4 trillion and cause $284 billion in energy savings, which can be reinvested in other areas. There are investments where $1 can cause more than $1 in savings and economic growth that we aren't making.

There is no evidence that the money spent in iraq would've been spent in long term investments in the US, but you do have to consdier the lack of investment here due to this war, and what the long term economic consequences are of not investing in infrastructure.

[Speck Tater]

16. Here's what Bush thinks the cost is...