Free tuition at Virginia Tech? Free health care for low-income families? Drastically reduced taxes for all? Safer vacations abroad? These are but a few ways in which citizens of the 9th District could benefit from the absence of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For the 2011 fiscal year, the two wars will cost the 9th District $254 million dollars. If citizens of the 9th District chose to spend that money here in the New River Valley, instead of footing the bill for Washington’s wars, we could fund a number of projects. It would pay the yearly tuition and fees for every undergraduate student (26,500 students) at Tech.
It would cover the cost of health care for almost 10 percent of the district’s residents. It would pay the salary of more than 4,000 firefighters or policemen. Or better yet, citizens could choose not to fund additional projects and instead to keep the fruits of their hard-earned labor.
To date, military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan has cost you $3,500. According to the National Priorities Project, which compiles data from the census and federal spending bills, this is the cost of war for every boy, girl, man and woman.
If the cost of war is burdened solely by U.S. taxpayers, the cost jumps to $7,500 per worker. Sadly, these figures are only for the upfront cost of war. If you factor in hidden costs of war, such as life insurance payments for soldiers killed in combat, medical treatment for soldiers injured in combat and money to refurbish military equipment, the Washington Post estimates the final cost of war will be more than three times the upfront cost.
This means every U.S. taxpayer will be on the hook for at least $22,000. These numbers may seem abstract and insignificant to the average college student. However, upon graduation and entrance into the workforce, these numbers will make more sense. When the government is garnishing a quarter to a third of your check in federal income taxes alone, these numbers will become quite significant.
A version of this article appeared in the Oct 15 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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I was for the wars when they started back in 2001/2003 but I didn't think at the time we'd still be there nearly 10 years later. We already started pulling out of Iraq but I agree, if they can't get their act/government together just leave em. Time to keep an eye on Iran as well as more important domestic issues like the economy and jobs.
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The only problem with your logic is that the wars have significantly supported the defense business. These pump millions of dollars into economies around the country. If you drastically cut all funding for defense projects, people in the defense industry (like workers at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant) risk layoffs or pay cuts. There is no win-win anymore, any choice will impact some group of people.
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You mean to say that people previously employed by the military industrial complex will have to find ways to be productive in other industries instead? How awful.
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Yay! Let's build things to blow them up! There's a real sound economic plan. How about putting those folks at Radford to work building cars or furniture or houses or some useful product that retains or creates more value rather than wasting their labor and blowing it up in the desert somewhere. Might as well divide them into teams and pay one group to dig ditches and the other to fill them in again. Long term it does just about as much good for the economy.
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