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Big-ticket items
Aug. 22nd, 2010 11:12 amIf one wonders how we got into the current economic morass, here's some numbers to consider:
9/11 cleanup and reconstruction: $100,000,000,000+ (over $100 billion, $2 trillion if counting losses in stock market wealth)
Iraq war and reconstruction: $748,000,000,000 ($748 billion)
Afghanistan war and reconstruction: $304,000,000,000 ($304 billion)
Katrina cleanup and reconstruction: $110,000,000,000 ($110 billion)
Stimulus Act of 2009: $787,000,000,000($787 billion)
Deepwater Horizon spill cleanup and reconstruction: $30,000,000,000 ($30 billion est.)
The really sad thing is how none of these performed the way they were projected to: there still is a hole in the ground at Ground Zero, Afghanistan is more dangerous than ever with no clear road to "victory", whole sections of New Orleans have been basically abandoned, unemployment is higher than ever with no recovery on the horizon, and Iraq and the Gulf look uncertain at best.
Add in $39.5 billion/year in foreign aid, plus the costs of special projects like 2004 Indonesian tsunami relief ($~1 billion) and 2010 Haiti earthquake relief ($1.15 billion), and its no wonder that isolationism sounds more and more attractive, and there's something of a weariness when yet another disaster, like Pakistan, comes along.
The really sad thing is how none of these performed the way they were projected to: there still is a hole in the ground at Ground Zero, Afghanistan is more dangerous than ever with no clear road to "victory", whole sections of New Orleans have been basically abandoned, unemployment is higher than ever with no recovery on the horizon, and Iraq and the Gulf look uncertain at best.
Add in $39.5 billion/year in foreign aid, plus the costs of special projects like 2004 Indonesian tsunami relief ($~1 billion) and 2010 Haiti earthquake relief ($1.15 billion), and its no wonder that isolationism sounds more and more attractive, and there's something of a weariness when yet another disaster, like Pakistan, comes along.
