I read last week that Congress has approved a total of $507 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan wars and that our current “burn rate” is $8 billion per month. What does this really mean? <\/p>\n
I did some math — on the basis of 300 million Americans — which is the most generous possible way to do this calculation, as we’ve not quite reached that and it includes a LOT of kids and elderly who can’t (and didn’t) pay anything for these wars.<\/p>\n
Appropriations to date: $1,700 for every man, woman and child in America. Currently burning at $27 per person, per month. I wish I had a households number, or total employment number, to do this calculation, but I couldn’t find one. Still, I’m sure I’d get a lot more value out of a cell phone contract than all this military spending.<\/p>\n
And… if you think these numbers seem low, when viewed per person, per month, consider this weekend’s report from PwC<\/a> that for twice that, $1 trillion, we could cap global emissions of all greenhouse gases. Gasp. Cough. Cough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I read last week that Congress has approved a total of $507 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan wars and that our current “burn rate” is $8 billion per month. What does this really mean? I did some math — on the basis of 300 million Americans — which is the most generous possible way to … <\/p>\n