Joe Stiglitz tells Democracy Now that war cost will reach $5 to $7 trillion

[Fumesucker]

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2015/10/27/nobel_laureate_joseph_stiglitz_on_rewriting

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, war—you wrote a whole book about the cost of war. President Obama has just announced that the U.S. will continue the longest war in U.S. history, the war in Afghanistan, of course, Iraq continuing to blow up, and the Middle East, as well. Talk about this.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ: OK. Well, the book I wrote with Linda Bilmes was called The Three Trillion Dollar War. Actually, we estimated the cost would be well in excess of $3 trillion. Just imagine what we could have done with those—with that amount of money to address the real problems in our society. But we knew that we were being conservative when we said $3 trillion. We, for instance, when we talked about disabilities, we were looking at the evidence from the previous wars, and we knew that this war the disabilities would be much, much higher. Unfortunately, we were right. And about 50 percent of those coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq are disabled. And by now, our estimate of the cost of the disabilities alone, and healthcare and disability benefits for that group of people, is over $1 trillion. You know, I don’t—

AMY GOODMAN: Which brings the cost of war to? Just the financial cost?

JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Oh, we’re—you know, I said before we were $3 to $5 [trillion]. We’re talking $4 to $6, $5 to $7 trillion.

[DJ13]

1. Money is never a problem for war

If it was spent to help our own citizens THEN its a problem.

We live in a sick society.

[villager]

2. This society, like Rome, will overextend and bankrupt itself, and then collapse.

A true long-range goal for progressives is to also start planning for the smaller countries/polities that will emerge from that wreckage....

[DJ13]

3. A true long-range goal for progressives is to also start planning for the smaller countries.....

I think thats an excellent idea.

I have my doubts though that the growing conservatism represented by Hillary and the Third Way would think of spending money towards that goal.

[villager]

4. They won't. They will be part of the collapse.

I'm just wondering now which side of "2050" it's likeliest to be on....

[yeoman6987]

5. That doesn't make sense. Bush in 8 years spent 2 trillion and Obama has spent up to 5 trillion?

Not buying it.

[dreamnightwind]

6. Stiglitz is extremely reputable

There are many ways to add up war costs, depending on what you're willing to concede is a war cost. I didn't dig into this, but from the OP I see he is discussing a trillion just to care for the disabled vets.

[Major Hogwash]

7. And the hits just keep on coming.

Obama is going to pass the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War off to the next President, instead of ending them.

[Unknown Beatle]

8. Dick Cheney is cackling with delight

as he and his company are beneficiaries to some of those trillions.