Invoice for the price of Iraq war for every American Citizen?

Question

If they were to issue an invoice for the war to every American citizen, how much would we owe? If there is a website that shows this information that would be helpful. Please send a link. Here is the current link for World Cash Reserves I wish it was broke down to war expenditures but it is not. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html

Answer 1

500 Billion dollars divided by 80 million legal taxpayers, $6250 per person. Will you take a check Georgie boy?

Answer 2

The cost is sadly much more than just $$. Our morality in the world, our damage control for our allies, for our trade partners. The lives lost, the lives maimed. (on all sides)

No matter what party controls the white house, no matter what the make up of the Congress, our country will be paying in goodwill, in continued threats (real and imagined) for generations because of this.

The tipping point is when we became a first strike force. Thank God that Mr Bush was not in power when we were 'afraid' of the Soviet Union. Else, none of us would be here.

Answer 3

We have borrowed from China to pay for this war, and we have increased the federal deficit. Is it worth it? No way. Until we start to actually pay, either monetarily or through a forced draft, most of us could give a crap. It doesn't affect us. I would like a real discourse on the cost of this illegal war. If we had that, a TRUE cost, we would be out of Iraq the same day it was released.

Answer 4

I found some info on the proposed 2008 budget. Defense spending would be $1604.67 for every person, using 300 million for the population.

The President’s 2008 Budget provides $481.4 billion for the Department of Defense’s base budget – a 62 percent increase over 2001. In addition to base funding, the request includes $93.4 billion in supplemental appropriations for 2007, and an additional $141.7 billion in 2008.

Answer 5

1. $2500 future cost to visit the memorial Wall we build for the dead...
2. A trillion dollars per person's death
3. And infinite amount of dollars because..."The Gods look down in anger and disappointment..."
4. Uncountable costs that stretch for hundreds of years into the future (if we don't pollute or nuke the earth to death before then) from the hatred, bigotry, and revenge an entire people will visit upon us because they are an ancient savage people who will never give up...

(My current resources cannot type out a full disclosure of invoice costs, but you get the jist...)

Answer 6

There is a real-time billboard in NY that shows how much each American citizen owes of the national debt, but as far as the actual Iraq war, I don't know.

Answer 7

Let me see: a recent Columbia University analyst estimates the dollar cost, including medical benefits and everything else related to the conflict at about 2.5 trillion dollars, assuming an end date of 2015 - 8 years from now. Bear in mind that this number is roughly 1000 times greater than what some government sources say. But what the heck, let's count EVERYTHING.

And about 67% of the US population is of income earning age. That means roughly 202,300,000 of us probably can be billed: I'm leaving out youngsters and folks over 65 -even though a considerable number of them still work.

And that comes out to about $11,000 a piece if the dinner check were delivered right this moment. But fortunately (or not) we're on the "pay as you go" plan, which for the sake of discussion I'll say is billed annually. We've been at this for 4 years now, and have 8 more to go according to the study, so were basically talking 12 years to blow the 11 thousand each. That comes out to 917.00 each (I rounded it up).

And, that 2.5 trillion Columbia projection is NOT the direct cost thus far, but rather, the estimate of FINAL cost after it is all said and done (the study says the year 2015) and includes indirect and consequential loss -not just the bill for guns, ammo, etc.

Furthermore, the study doesn't address economic benefits of the war, such as higher spending for military technology and reconstruction of Iraq -money that goes into the pockets of wage earners. Let's say, then, that for every dollar spent there is an offset of 10 cents in economic benefit. That means our cost each is now about $825 (I rounded down).

Finally, the Columbia Study is said by some economists to be flawed because it counts both the cost of the war and future cost of debt to fund it; specifically, it would be, and I quote:

"... analogous to counting both the sale price of a house and the cost of future mortgage payments as the cost of buying the house."

Let me see. If I did that with a loan of $1,000 over an 12 year term at a rate of 7%, that would mean I would pay about $1,480, which is to say, about $480.00 in interest. But if I did it the way the Columbia study does it, I'd pay $1,000 PLUS $1,480.00 -a total of $2,480.00! Yikes!

So, in other words, the Columbia number is 2.5 times BIGGER than it should be, because of an accounting error. And that means my estimate of $825.00 per person is 2.5 times TOO big! So, the real number should be about $330.00 per year, per working person to support the war until the year 2015.

It looks like the cost, on a worst case scenario basis, is therefore in the range of beer and pizza for a year, for the next 8 years. Send me a bill. Oh -I forgot, they DO send me a bill each year, which I pay on April 15.

Finally, even allowing for the accounting error, the corrected Columbia estimate of 880 billion is still much greater than every government estimate I've ever seen.

Sources below give you the raw data, but Google or Yahoo search terms such as "costs of Iraqi conflict" will give you plenty of material.

An interesting question.

EDIT: I just saw a math error of my own; I used 2.2 trillion in my calculations instead of 2.5 trillion, this means I must revise my final estimate upward to $375.00 each.

Answer 8

We're already paying for it with our taxes. Freedom costs!

Answer 9

money isn't the point...the point is that we have ruined an ancient culture destroyed its people and have sent our own people to be blown up with out the materials they need to perform their objectives...murky objectives at that

Answer 10

I pay taxes, and am for us being in Iraq. Does that make me a warmonger?