Wednesday, March 19, 2008

5 years...and a whole lot of money.

So we have reached the 5 year anniversary of the Iraq war. To date it has cost Americans 500 billion dollars. I did a little simple math and that means that every man women and child has paid $1,646.45 give or take a bit. That means we pay about $329 a year. But of course not all of the children are really pulling their weight (and believe me I have seen some fat kids) we are actually each paying a bit more. So if you spread the cost out among everyone who filed income taxes then the amount increases. If you are one of the approximately 134 million who did file their taxes you paid $3721 or $744 dollars each year. Which means if you are like me than you are actually paying more than $2 every day to Iraq.
When I lived in South Salt Lake Casey Fitts justified rasising taxes by 116% by saying "It is just a candy bar every day". Yes, my parents now get to "donate" a candy bar every day so that a women with far less education, experience, and mental capacity can make more than double the average salary of the city while sitting at a desk playing solitaire. Now for $2 you can get more than a candy bar, you can get a hamburger at my work cafeteria. So in honor of the 5 year anniversary and Casey Fitts stupidity, I skipped lunch thinking instead those two bucks are going to Iraq so we can blow up more bridges. I can't help but think some where in Iraq there is a kid wishing I would have eaten the hamburger.

4 comments:

Steph said...

Touché

The Girl said...

I can't wait till you read "Atlas Shrugged". The part where you talk about supporting the lower income women of lower mental capacity is a line straight out of the book.

Andrew said...

Man Gavin, I have never heard a rant like this from you before... i LOVE it. keep it up.

Nathaniel Gee said...

Clever, but a few errors. People like you and I are not paying near that much. I took a look at my income and other taxes and middle to lower income americans like myself are getting a preety good deal. Thanks to Bush tax cuts we all pay very little. Even with the tax cuts for the "Rich" they still are paying most of the war. If anything the saddest part is we are paying too little for the war out of our own pockets and letting inflation pay for the rest. Second the most important question to ask on this five year anniversary is not how much it cost, but rather has it been worth the cost? This is a difficult question and one that has very good arguments on both sides. But ranting about cost with not explanation of the benefit is not of much value and beneath a man as great as yourself.