Earlier this year,
it was reported that a Nobel-prize winning economist estimated the United States' cost of waging war (and causing a civil war) in Iraq to be between one and two trillion dollars, far higher than official estimates.
By obtaining U.S. census figures and dividing them by the low end of this estimate (one trillion dollars), I have come up with a per state and per household cost (see the table below). The per household cost of the Iraqi Civil War to each United States household is (I hope you are sitting) $9,480.46. The price tag per United States citizen is $3,373.70. (To determine your household's cost of the Iraq war, simply multiply the number of people in your family--children and infants count--by $3,373.70).
Of course not every household/person will have to fork over this amount. If you are in the highest or the lowest socio-economic class, you will probably pay less than this amount, because: (a) very poor households will not be able to bear the cost; and, (b) historically upper income households have found ways (typically through Congressional legislation) to pay less in taxes as a proportion of annual household income compared to middle-income households. If you are a middle-class household, however, you will likely pay more than $9,480.46, not only for the reasons detailed in the preceding sentence, but also because the figures do not take into account the interest that will be due on our long-term debt--an added cost of borrowing to pay for the war.
State | Population | Households | Per State Iraqi War Cost |
Alabama | 4,557,808 | 1,737,080 | $15,376,676,849 |
Alaska | 663,661 | 221,600 | $2,238,993,116 |
Arizona | 5,939,292 | 1,901,327 | $20,037,389,420 |
Arkansas | 2,779,154 | 1,042,696 | $3,514,615,407 |
California | 36,132,147 | 11,502,870 | $121,899,024,333 |
Colorado | 4,665,177 | 2,010,806 | $6,783,856,202 |
Connecticut | 3,510,297 | 1,301,670 | $11,842,688,989 |
Delaware | 843,524 | 298,736 | $2,845,796,919 |
District of Columbia | 550,521 | 248,338 | $1,857,292,698 |
Florida | 17,789,864 | 6,337,929 | $60,017,664,177 |
Georgia | 9,072,576 | 3,006,369 | $30,608,149,651 |
Hawaii | 1,275,194 | 403,240 | $4,302,121,998 |
Idaho | 1,429,096 | 469,645 | $4,821,341,175 |
Illinois | 12,763,371 | 4,591,779 | $43,059,784,743 |
Indiana | 6,271,973 | 2,336,306 | $21,159,755,310 |
Iowa | 2,966,334 | 1,149,276 | $10,007,521,016 |
Kansas | 2,744,687 | 1,037,891 | $9,259,750,532 |
Kentucky | 4,173,405 | 1,590,647 | $14,079,816,449 |
Louisiana | 4,523,628 | 1,656,053 | $15,261,363,784 |
Maine | 1,321,505 | 518,200 | $4,458,361,419 |
Maryland | 5,600,388 | 1,980,859 | $18,894,028,996 |
Massachusetts | 6,398,743 | 2,443,580 | $21,585,519,636 |
Michigan | 10,120,860 | 3,785,661 | $34,144,745,382 |
Minnesota | 5,132,799 | 1,895,127 | $17,316,523,986 |
Mississippi | 2,921,088 | 1,046,434 | $9,854,874,586 |
Missouri | 5,800,310 | 2,194,594 | $19,568,505,847 |
Montana | 935,670 | 358,667 | $3,156,669,879 |
Nebraska | 1,758,787 | 666,184 | $5,933,619,702 |
Nevada | 2,414,807 | 751,165 | $8,146,834,376 |
New Hampshire | 1,309,940 | 474,606 | $4,419,344,578 |
New Jersey | 8,717,925 | 3,064,645 | $29,411,663,573 |
New Mexico | 1,928,384 | 677,971 | $6,505,789,101 |
New York | 19,254,630 | 7,056,860 | $64,959,345,231 |
North Carolina | 8,683,242 | 3,132,013 | $29,294,653,535 |
North Dakota | 636,677 | 257,152 | $2,147,957,195 |
Ohio | 11,464,042 | 4,445,773 | $38,676,238,485 |
Oklahoma | 3,547,884 | 1,342,293 | $11,665,863,251 |
Oregon | 3,641,056 | 1,333,723 | $12,283,830,627 |
Pennsylvania | 12,429,616 | 4,777,003 | $41,933,795,499 |
Rhode Island | 1,076,189 | 408,424 | $3,630,738,829 |
South Carolina | 4,255,083 | 1,533,854 | $14,355,373,517 |
South Dakota | 775,933 | 290,245 | $2,617,765,162 |
Tennessee | 5,962,959 | 2,232,905 | $20,117,234,778 |
Texas | 22,859,968 | 7,393,354 | $77,122,674,042 |
Utah | 2,469,585 | 701,281 | $8,331,638,915 |
Vermont | 623,050 | 240,634 | $2,101,983,785 |
Virginia | 7,567,465 | 2,699,173 | $25,530,356,671 |
Washington | 6,287,759 | 2,271,398 | $21,213,012,538 |
West Virginia | 1,816,856 | 736,481 | $6,129,527,087 |
Wisconsin | 5,536,201 | 2,084,544 | $18,677,481,314 |
Wyoming | 509,294 | 193,608 | $1,718,205,168 |
Total, US | 296,410,404 | 105,480,101 | $3,373.70 per person | $9,480.46 per household |
As I've said, the costs in the table above are based on the low-end figure ($1 trillion) of a recent estimate of U.S. costs in Iraq. If the cost of the Iraqi Civil War to the United States is $2 trillion (the high end estimate), then just double the figures in the above table to find the per person, per state, and per household cost. State populations come from the U.S. Census (2005 estimate), and total U.S. population and total U.S. households come from the U.S. Census (2000 Census).
To me, it looks like President Bush and the GOP have set in motion the decimation of the middle class in the United States. Go ahead, share these war cost estimates with as many registered voters (including Republicans) as you can. When coupled with the moral valence of the Iraq war (we were preemptive in our invasion of Iraq and no one can honestly argue this does not go against God's commandment not to kill), this economic factor will hopefully serve as an effective one-two knockout punch in the 2006 and 2008 elections by the electorate to any candidate who supports our continued military presence in Iraq.
Finally, when looking at current government statistics of American soldiers in Iraq who were killed or wounded to the extent that they could not return to duty (that number as of October 20, 2006, was 12,319), one can also calculate the dollar cost per dead/wounded service person. Using the to-date costs of $336 billion, not estimates, but actual figures appropriated by Congress, as of October 20, 2006, the cost to the United States has been $27,274,941.15 for every dead or significantly wounded soldier in Iraq!
UPDATE
OK, one reader thought it would be useful if the Iraqi Civil War costs could be translated into work hours. I took the bait, and here is what I have come up with. The number of Texans between the ages of 18-65 years is 14,218,900 (using U.S. Census figure estimates). The Federal minimum wage is $5.15/hour. One educated estimate of the cost of the Iraqi Civil War to the United States is $1 trillion, as I've said. That cost translates into 194,174,757,282 Federal minimum-wage hours. Supposing that only Texans between the ages of 18-65 years have to pay the $1 trillion price tag for the Iraq War, and supposing they had to do so by working for minimum wage, then it would take these Texans 13,656 hours each to pay off our Iraqi war debt. This translates into about 341.4 40-hour work weeks for each Texan. And, assuming a two-week yearly vacation for each Texas worker, this translates into 6.83 years of minimum-wage work for the 14.2 million Texas workers. If this statistic isn't horrifying enough, imagine yourself flipping burgers at McDonald's in Houston full-time, 50 weeks per year for almost 7 years (without pay, because you'd have to turn your paychecks over to the government to pay for the Iraqi Civil War)...working right alongside Tom Delay! It's enough to make you want to jump into the Fry-o-lator.