Quite a number of people have noticed with dismay an article in the Los Angeles Times which calculates the spending on the war in Iraq at an astounding $100,000 per minute.
While we’re looking at costs there are a few more even more astounding numbers to consider:
We spend more than $125,000 per minute on highways
We spend more than $630,000 per minute on Medicare
We spend more than $900,000 per minute on Social Security
We spend more than a staggering $1,000,000 per minute on K-12 education
Not one of these things is probative. The size of these remarkable numbers don’t mean that we should stop building highways or paying the medical expenses of sick old people or stop paying old age pensions or stop educating children. Even though I’m quite sure that there are people who think that we should stop doing all of those things. But those are completely different questions.
I know a lot of people don’t like the war in Iraq. I don’t like it much myself. I opposed our invasion of Iraq. But not one single responsible voice on either side of the aisle is calling for any measure that will lower our expenditures there in the next six weeks or the next six months (and maybe not in the next six years). So, unless you’ve got a substantial alternative suggestion, fasten your seatbelts, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
