How Much Money Does This War Cost The Americans?

[Rat Faced]

How about showing the FEDERAL Government Tables instead of those including State Government?

US Federal Government Expenditure


And how about a closer look at those Defence figures, instead of a summary showing that 'The Gulf' is costing $344Billion, which is crap.

US Defence Budget 2001-2002

Of course that means the overall spending has increased by only $33Billion over the year before, a lot of money I'll agree...however a lot less than the $344Billion originaly claimed.

Now, how about adding inflation into the figures?

You may find that in REAL terms, its a lot less than $33Billion increase in spending over 2001.



However, remember that we are now entering 1st quarter of 2003 (assuming that your Financial Year is the same as UK's (6th April - 5th April)) and the war is still ongoing.


I think you forget, most economical costs involved are recoverable from normal expenses. Wages still have to be paid whether you are at war or not. Exercises involving Live Firing are ongoing, whether at war or not (just not on as large a scale). Savings are made where the troops are not now stationed, as they are in the field.

Then there are the economical benefits: eg most of the rebuilding work will be given to US firms (paid for by Iraqi oil), The Hollywood films that will now be made (bringing in $100millions from the rest of the world as they flock to the cinema), The fact that 'Gasoline' will be cheaper for a few more years....and the knock on benefits to business'....



The REAL cost of war are 'intangibles', not covered in the 'economics' of the war itself......ie The cost of a human life, the cost of an injury, the cost of looking after the injured that are then 'demobbed' because of their injuries.

[ne1GotZardoz]

Originally posted by zhelynd@3 April 2003 - 02:03
Approximately 3 weeks since US starts its campaign, US government have already
spend about 75 billion US dollars directly on the war.

Since the war is expected to last for some time, Pantegon have already layout a
war budget of $344billion USD to removing saddam.

The $344Billion is just a small portion, more greater economic costs(or risks) of the
war include:

1) Hundreds of American Soldreds, thousands of Iraqis soldreds and civilians' lives
2) The direct economic impact of war, including consumer spending, stock market,
3) A rocketing oil price that may devaste some american industries.
4) The future military and security budget may be a lot more higher than before
5) Opportunity cost of the war, money spent on the war that could been spent on
other more constructive things.

That's the cost analysis of the war, lets take a look at what AlterNet have to say

"Why does the federal government want to spend $344 billion on the Pentagon,
when the federal government currently spends only $42 billion on education, $26
billion on affordable housing, $6 billion on Head Start, and only $1 billion on school
construction? Does it appear that our national priorities are mixed up or what?"

some interesting facts are also being stated in the same article:

"In our country ¡V the richest nation in the world ¡V 14 million kids attend schools
that need extensive renovation or replacement. In international test scores, our
eighth graders rank 18 in math and 19 in science, below Slovenia, Singapore, and
Hungary, among others."

"The child poverty rate hovers at over 15 percent, meaning that about one in six
kids lives in poverty. "

"Over 40 million Americans, including about 10 million children, have no health
insurance."

Since Bush choose to ignore all these problems to pursuit a much more noble and
important quest - removing Saddam, what do you think the outcome of the next
election will be?

Can the Americans afford to have Bush for president for another 4 years?

Reference link: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11427

Well,

We already had the soldiers on payroll. That expense existed with or without war.

We have all these cool weapons that deteriorate if they are not used and we have to constantly make more anyway.

The soldiers are always being trained. This is the ultimate training camp.

Sorry but its true.

The soldiers have to eat. MRI's may cost a little more, but when you pay $500 for a hammer, $15 for a ration isn't a big deal.

When you speak of cost, you should rule out existing cost and focus on additional costs.

Rising oil prices?
Dude...Look around you.
This is not that big a planet. We do not have a limitless supply of oil.
Price increases are inevitable.
Thats what happens when supply drops but demand keeps growing.

To be brutally honest, the lessons learned in this small war are more than worth the few hundred billion they are costing.

And when you compare the number of lives lost in this war to the number of lives that were lost due to Saddam's savagery before the war and potential in absence of war, there is no contest.

As to your point that we spend more money protecting Americans than we do on some of the privleges of being an American...
You're right...We do.
Why do you think you still have those priveleges?
Life is not black and white.
Never was, never will be.
And war is never the best choice.
Sometimes, it is the only choice you have.

Well...You could die.

No...Not really my choice of preference.

Yours?

Peace

Oh, and can we afford to have Bush for another 4 years?
I don't know. He doesn't seem on the surface to be very good with math.
But then, most republicans aren't that good with math.
Thats why the Democrats exist. So we can correct their mistakes.
That doesn't mean the war was a bad idea though just because the messenger flunked math.

Again, Peace

[Spindulik]

Bill Gates can esily afford a chunk of that.

[amphoteric88]

removed

[Z]

patriots are $1,000,000 each. they have used about 600 or so?

[zhelynd]

besides the above missels, i heard that they already spent half a billion to compensate death soldreds and their families, i wonder if these are also fixed expenses even not for war, i mean, people also die in military exercises too right?

[Skillian]

Considering the amount of casualties from this war, their families must have received a hell of a lot of compensation for the bill to total $500, 000, 000.

[zhelynd]

I remembered the exact figure was 0.46 billion...

anyways, the $344 billion is the cost only for this war, that's on top of the annual defence budget.

[ne1GotZardoz]

Originally posted by zhelynd@5 April 2003 - 22:57
besides the above missels, i heard that they already spent half a billion to compensate death soldreds and their families, i wonder if these are also fixed expenses even not for war, i mean, people also die in military exercises too right?

I'll repeat, we have to use the missiles whether we go to war or not.
The electronics and the explosive chemicals do not have an extremely long shelf life. They degrade for a variety of reasons, mostly to do with weather and other atmospheric conditions.
If you were ever in the armed forces, you would know that training missions with live fire are the norm.
We also have an extensive build up of weaponry that has been stockpiled from the cold war era.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, we reduced our forces somewhat and our war games were less frequent.
What we use in this war is what we already had anyway.
The fuel required for these operations, (over and above what we would have used anyway), is negligeable.
At last mention in the news, Bush was requesting an additional 75bil for this campaign.
That is how much he figures this war and the Iraqi recovery effort will cost, over and above what we would have spent on our military budget anyway.
75bil for this country's government is really not alot.
And please again, take note that the majority of that 75bil is to help in the Iraqi recovery effort.

As to your question about military men dying in training missions...
The answer is, unfortunately, yes.
In fact, when you get down to it, we tend to kill more of our own in routine training missions and replenishment exercises, due to negligence or lack of attention to details, than we have lost in this war so far.
But isn't that the way it goes?
Any auto insurance agent will tell you, most auto accidents happen within two blocks of your driveway.

Peace

[zhelynd]

Missels are kept in fridges and under cold temperatures. And they do have a fairly long lifespan. All missles, i guess for average, can last at least a year.
what the war does is it used up the missels from reserve, so the arm factories have to produce additional missels to fill up the reserve. my conclusion is that war does consume additional missels, alot more.

Anunal military cost and the cost of this war are 2 different figures. Whatever the war costs is considered a variable cost, which is the 74.7 billion. It's on top of the fixed cost for missel deteriation, solderd died in exercise and other non-war military expenses.

Is 75b really not alot to the American government, even during a slow economy such as the one right now? I doubt that.